• ​The NNI Parkinson Home Care Training and Support Programme will enable patients with Parkinson’s Disease to receive coordinated community care in their homes.
• This new initiative aims to bridge the gap between hospital and community services and enhance medical care for people with Parkinson’s Disease.
• Part of the new Programme involves training community home care nurses to become the champions in caring for patients with Parkinson’s Disease in their respective healthcare settings.

One of the effective methods would be the implementation of a home care model that functions on a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals, to continually address the needs of patients with PD and related conditions. To meet this challenging situation, the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) introduced the NNI Parkinson Home Care Training and Support Programme in July 2015. Supported by the TOTE Board Community Healthcare Fund, this Programme aims to bridge the gap between the hospital and the community to heighten care standards for patients with PD.

About the Programme

The NNI Parkinson Home Care Training and Support Programme involves training community home care nurses, so that their skills are honed in championing the care of patients with PD in their respective healthcare organisations. It is important for hospital-based nurses to work in partnership with community-based nurses so that everyone is on the same page and will be able to provide seamless care to our PD patients.

Apart from providing training for the community nurses, effective communication and information transfer between the various care partners are key in ensuring continuity and coordinated care for PD patients in the community.

Says A/Prof Louis Tan, Senior Consultant, Department of Neurology, and Director of the Programme, “NNI sees approximately 3,000 PD patients each year in our clinic.  Many of our patients are frail and elderly and many are home alone or with a domestic helper in the day.  This programme enables us to assess how these patients are coping at home, pre-empt complications, and bring to them the available community resources to support them.”

Since the Programme’s initiation, a total of 46 clinical attachments (at the NNI PD and Movement Disorders Clinic) and 53 home care visit attachments have been conducted with the community home care nurses, and home visits were carried out for 51 PD patients. So far, the home care visits have been well accepted by patients and their caregivers. NNI currently has about 45 patients under home care and targets to serve more than 100 patients under this Programme.

Says Ms Yvonne Chew, Senior Staff Nurse from the clinic who conducts the home visits, “Advanced PD patients are largely hindered by their mobility problem. Getting out of the home for their follow-up appointments poses a great challenge to both the patient and caregivers. Being able to receive timely encouragement and care at their doorstep from a nurse's visit means a lot to these home-bound patients.”

Showcasing an Ideal Home Care Model

This Programme will be discussed at this year’s 7th Singapore International Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorders Symposium, where home care will be one of the key subjects for participants to learn about. While there are effective acute care programmes and services in place, it is one of NNI’s objectives to see patients receiving the best possible accessible care at home. It is desired that the NNI Parkinson Home Care Training and Support Programme will be an ideal model for healthcare institutions to adopt in order to provide accessible care for patients with PD and other neurological/age-related disorders.