Hospital for Special Care Begins Parkinson's Program

6:20 a.m. EDT, September 30, 2013

NEW BRITAIN The Hospital for Special Care this month is launching a program for patients with Parkinson's disease and related disorders.

Dr. Adam D. Simmons, a neurologist, will head the program, the hospital announced.

"More than 1 million people have Parkinsons disease in the United States, and 50,000 to 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year," the hospital said in a statement. "Parkinsons disease can affect gait, balance, flexibility, coordination, speech, voice and swallowing which affects activities of daily living and overall quality of life."

Simmons said the hospital will treat all stages of the disease starting from onset.

"We emphasize active patient involvement in their own care, to include exercise, physical therapy, medications, and lifestyle changes," he said

The new program features the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment BIG and LOUD Program that was developed in 1987 and incorporates LOUD specialists in speech pathology and BIG-certified physical therapists.

"With the LSVT LOUD, the muscles used for voice and speech are stimulated through a systematic hierarchy of exercises," the hospital said. "Treatment improves respiratory, laryngeal and articulatory function to improve speech intelligibility with improvements shown to last up to two years following treatment.

Read the rest here:
Hospital for Special Care Begins Parkinson's Program