parkinson's disease

HI, im actually seeing this pt as an outpatient.
She is very shaky and has an increased amount of resting and intention tremours of her neck and UL, and to a lesser extent her LL. Her co-ordination is fairly fine, Her balance isnt too bad,
She is amb with a 4WF, with supervision.
She can walk straight for a short period of time but then can veer to the left. And at times she develops a festinent gait pattern.

As an outpatient, what can i do to help her? I cant do anything for her tremors.
So i was thinking about working on her walking with tape on the floor.
ALso thinking about general exercise to improve her LL strength.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

[neurospast]

If you are working in the UK, The parkinson's disease society has a brilliant exercise booklet which your patient can get for free.
Do you know when this patient is last seen by a neuro consultant for review of her drugs? In general they should be seen one time a year but in reality this is not true in all cases I am afraid. She is also having some divertion to the left after some time which could mean that her medication is 'running out'.
You have to ask yourself what you want to achieve because a short period of exercises will not help your patient. With what you write I would say that she is already in a 'progressed' stage and adjusting her enviroment might be important.

[sdkashif]

Have a look over these information resources.

Physiotherapy and parkinson's disease

GUIDELINES FOR PHYSIOTHERAPY PRACTICE IN PARKINSON'S DISEASE

Parkinson's Disease- Physiotherapy Guidelines

Parkinson's Disease Society

[monish_physio]

hi i have some set of exercises for parkinsonian patient but for that u first have to assess her completely n let me know soon her findings as in which stage actually she is now is the stage progressed to such an extent that u have to modify her environment or is she capable enough to come to a near normal... u just assess n tell that does she progressed even a % or she is in original old condition when u started ur treatment??