Speaker 1
Good Saturday morning to everybody and welcome to your next chapter, a production of the Heights at Avery Heights, a one of a kind senior living community, centrally located near the most entertaining and historical spots in Connecticut. It is never too late to grow and enjoy new realms of the mind and heart. Your next chapter delves deep into topics that will improve the way that we think about aging, senior living, and the retirement years.

Speaker 1
It is time to celebrate our seniors and give them wholehearted encouragement to bravely step up to new experiences with optimism, with inner peace, and the courage to never give up on growing. We will discuss exciting opportunities, important resource for older adults, financial well-being, senior living communities, and emotional health. It’s all hosted by the Heights Senior Living Specialist, Siobhan Mattingly, and I’m Gary Byron.

Speaker 1
Siobhan, good to see you. Good to see you. How are you this morning?

Speaker 2
Very good. How’s your week? Very good. The week was awesome.

Speaker 1
You always have awesome weeks. I know. I’m so jealous. I have good weeks. I don’t know about awesome weeks.

Speaker 2
Yeah, it’s awesome.

Speaker 1
Maybe in the summer.

Speaker 2
That’s because we’re the best. A Place for Mom voted us the best senior living community. Yeah.

Speaker 1
But that’s not new. That’s not surprising. But that’s exciting. Well, this is a new thing. That is exciting, but it’s not surprising.

Speaker 2
We just did a pizza party, actually, for our staff, because I don’t make it the best, right? They made it the best.

Speaker 1
Well, every spoke makes the wheel turn.

Speaker 2
Exactly.

Speaker 1
So everybody.

Speaker 2
Yeah. But it’s exciting because our, come to find out, the guy, George, who’s our dining room manager. He’s like kind of like, you know, almost like the maitre d’ or, and he does a really good job. He actually used to own a bunch of pizza places in Canada. So he made the pizza. Let me tell you, this pizza was awesome. I have like four or five pieces. And so my goal is to, uh, during the summer, I want to get like a brick oven pizza maker. And then I want to have him, this pizza was, how do you get a brick of either? You have a brick. Apparently you could just order them on Amazon.

Speaker 1
Really? You have one or not. Well, it’s either you have one in your house or you don’t. No,

Speaker 2
Apparently, you can order them and you can have them outside.

Speaker 1
Oh, outside. Okay.

Speaker 2
This pizza was that good. It was really.

Speaker 1
Oh, man.

Speaker 2
And then we served it for, he made additional, and we served it for our appetizer for our happy hour that day, and they loved it. The residents loved it. Isn’t it crazy, the little hidden, it’s not a hidden talent, because he owned like 13, I think it was called Papa’s Pizza in Canada.

Speaker 2
He owned 13 of them. So that’s not really a hidden talent. No, no. Hidden to us, because we’re in the United States.

Speaker 1
Well, they have brick oven pizza places here in Connecticut.

Speaker 2
I’m telling you. I’m like, I’m not going to mention the pizza. Pizza is so hard for me because I’m even like sushi.

Speaker 2
Like I’m Chinese food. I’m like a particular person. And I have yet to find a pizza place.

Speaker 1
Oh, come on.

Speaker 2
I’m telling you.

Speaker 1
Here in Connecticut, we’re like known for great pizzas. You’re kidding me.

Speaker 2
This pizza, I don’t usually eat four or five pieces of pizza. Thank you, Jimmy, for shaking your head. I wish we were on the live thing right now. So you could see the support that I’m getting.

Speaker 1
Do you like the New York style or the Chicago style?

Speaker 2
Oh, I think you were going to name places. Oh, I like thin crust.

Speaker 1
Yeah, New York style.

Speaker 2
Like a good, yeah. Yeah, me too. Like a good crust.

Speaker 1
Yeah, I don’t like Chicago style. Like the real thick, it’s all doughy.

Speaker 2
But I hate, like he had that really good crust at the end. You know how you eat it, eat it, eat it, and then at the end you got that nice piece of crust that you can just, that’s what I enjoy. That’s a good pizza to me. I don’t like a pizza where, like I don’t like centerpieces. I don’t even understand centerpieces of pizza.

Speaker 1
Okay, first of all, you’re talking about Greek pizzas.

Speaker 2
Yeah, I don’t like centerpieces.

Speaker 1
Where they cut in squares.

Speaker 2
Exactly.

Speaker 1
Okay, the Italians cut it in triangles.

Speaker 2
That’s what I like.

Speaker 1
Yeah.

Speaker 2
And I like a good crust at the end so I can…

Speaker 1
You’re getting me hungry now.

Speaker 2
Yeah, like fried dough. Good Lord. It reminds me of fried dough.

Speaker 1
I love fried dough. That’s like… I can’t go to a fair and not get fried dough.

Speaker 2
Okay, sad. Sadly, first time I tried fried dough was last year. What? At the July 4th.

Speaker 1
Why? I don’t know.

Speaker 2
It just didn’t appeal to me. But that was all they had there. They had ice cream and I’m lactose intolerant and fried dough. And I was hungry and I was like, all right, I’ll try fried dough. Now I’m like addicted to it.

Speaker 1
Sauce, sugar or powdered sugar or cinnamon or what? Doesn’t matter. Oh my goodness. That’s the first time you’ve ever.

Speaker 2
I know.

Speaker 1
I guess I can’t make fun of her too much because there’s a whole host of classic movies I’ve never seen. Right. People are like, want to see the second Top Gun? I go, I never even saw the first.

Speaker 2
I’m like, oh, no.

Speaker 1
I’m like, oh, I’ve never. All right, we’re done. I’m sorry, Hal. We’re done.

Speaker 2
I’m sorry, Hal.

Speaker 1
No. We’ll have you on another time. I saw it from Star Wars. I’ve never.

Speaker 1
Okay. All right. That’s it.

Speaker 1
After that, I was like. In fact, I was seven. I remember seeing Star Wars in 77 at the theater.

Speaker 2
All right. But you’ve seen the Avenger movie.

Speaker 1
I took my. Jeez, I think I took my son. The last one.

Speaker 1
Okay. I only seen one. That’s Robert Downey Jr., right?

Speaker 1
Yes. Okay.

Speaker 2
Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 1
Jeez, I’m getting chastised.

Speaker 2
You have homework to do. How can you not see Top Gun? All right, bring Holly in so I can talk about the volleyball scene. Go ahead.

Speaker 1
Why don’t you introduce your guest? I know who she is. I know what she does. I have a whole bunch of questions for her, but I’d love for you to introduce her.

Speaker 2
I am so excited to introduce Holly Seymour. She’s the program director for the Connecticut chapter of the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, the Connecticut APDA. She’s actually, I want to say that she’s a former, she worked at another senior living community.

Speaker 2
So she’s a former competitor. So I feel like we’re Rocky and Apollo. You know what I mean?

Speaker 2
But now we’re collaborating. Now we’re friends.

Speaker 1
I was going to say, Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa, he helped them.

Speaker 2
Exactly.

Speaker 1
I did see this movie.

Speaker 2
And that’s what’s happening here. So I think. Rocky 4 was it?

Speaker 2
So I guess I’m like Apollo and she’s Rocky because I’m helping her. Right? Hey, I did it for you.

Speaker 2
I did it for you. I’m just happy to be here.

Speaker 3
we wish you were here actually appropriate it’s an appropriate topic for yes so it’s perfect yes

Speaker 2
yes we’ll call you creed oh holly creed nice there you go i’ve been called many things in my life so

Speaker 1
i’ll take creed and siobhan Mattingly exactly the eye of the tiger and i’ll be mick you can’t win come on you can’t win come on adrian adrian all right oh my goodness holly tell us a little bit about yourself before we get too deep into the questions in the weeds here a little bit well

Speaker 3
first thank you for having me here i’m just honored to represent the connecticut chapter of the american parkinson’s disease association um and that’s a mouthful but yes i joined the chapter as a volunteer back in 2017 as a facilitator for support group in Glastonbury, where I was working in the senior living industry. You know, and Siobhan can talk about how we meet families along the way, and they touch our heart. And I met a caregiver who was advocating for his wife with Parkinson’s, and it awakened this passion for serving the Parkinson’s community inside of me. So, you know, later on, my career took me to Farmington, and I started another a Parkinson’s support group in 2019.

Speaker 3
And I still host that support group each month. We meet at the Farmington Senior Center the second Friday of the month. And, you know, it’s a really great group that has folks with Parkinson’s as well as their care partners.

Speaker 3
We’ve had some really fun topics with guest speakers on home care and VA benefits, all the way to medical cannabis programs. And we recently talked about how table tennis or ping pong is becoming a popular form of exercise and social activity for the Parkinson’s community. I love ping pong.

Speaker 3
Yeah. I mean, I’ve never really played it. I always think of Forrest Gump, you know, and him playing it in that great movie.

Speaker 3
So I definitely want to see if we can get it going here in Connecticut and boost that as another way to, you know, be active with Parkinson’s.

Speaker 2
That is awesome. I’m in on that. We’re waiting in a couple weeks to talk about opportunities.

Speaker 2
I love ping pong. That sounds amazing. I’m not saying I’m good at it, but I like it.

Speaker 2
Gary might call the games. And I could be the color voice.

Speaker 1
That’s right. That’s right. Hello again, everybody, and welcome.

Speaker 2
The ping pong open. That’s right. Sponsored by.

Speaker 1
Tell us a little bit about the APDA, known as the American Parkinson’s Disease Association.

Speaker 3
Yeah, so here in Connecticut, we represent the local chapter, but the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, or APDA, is the largest grassroots network dedicated to fighting the Parkinson’s disease and works tirelessly to assist more than one million Americans with Parkinson’s live life to the fullest. We were founded in 1961, and we have raised and invested more than $226 million to provide outstanding patient services and educational programs. So I’m excited to elevate public awareness about the disease today with you all on this program this morning.

Speaker 1
How many people are inflicted with it, just out of curiosity, because it seems to be lately more prevalent now than I remember it even as a kid growing up?

Speaker 3
Absolutely. So every six minutes, there’s a new Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. And the prior data, we would say every nine minutes.

Speaker 3
But we’ve had to readjust that because there’s 90,000 new diagnosis of Parkinson’s each year nationally. And there’s approximately 1 million people living with Parkinson’s today. So here in Connecticut, it accounts for 12,000 Connecticut or nutmeggers having Parkinson’s. So, you know, I think that we can all start to see it more, whether it be environmental impacts.

Speaker 3
There is some relation to Vietnam veterans with some of the things that they were exposed to in Vietnam. You know, we’re doing more studies to find out more. We’re pouring money into research to really get at the cause and then lead us to the cure.

Speaker 1
Well, you’re kind of getting into my next question because I was going to ask you if it’s hereditary at all, where if someone’s parent or grandparent or somewhere along their family line had Parkinson’s, does that necessarily make that individual more susceptible to that? Is there any link in it being hereditary?

Speaker 3
There is some familial hereditary connection. And it accounts for a small percentage. Again, not a doctor, so I wouldn’t necessarily want to give those types of statistics. But I have met brothers who have Parkinson’s and mother daughters and different things of that nature. But staying active, taking good care of yourself are great ways to hopefully combat.

Speaker 1
Well, you say take care of yourself. I mean, are there preventative measures that one can take to it? Maybe at least lessen the possibility that they would be inflicted by it.

Speaker 3
I think that staying active with a great exercise routine, eating healthy, anti-inflammatory diet are recommended. And let’s see, I mean, I think that you should talk to your doctor and, you know, have regular contact with your doctor if there are small signs in the beginning to get connected with that neurologist and movement disorder quickly, because we often hear some people take one, three, even five years to get that diagnosis despite the onset of symptoms. So, you know, Parkinson’s, a lot of people think about it as, oh, that’s the tremor, that’s the shake, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Speaker 3
You know, there’s the motor symptoms that come along with Parkinson’s disease, And then there’s the non-motor symptoms. So we want to raise awareness. And we do that, you know, through the educational programs, the support, the wellness programs we promote all here, you know, with APDA.

Speaker 1
So let’s talk about those small signs that you had mentioned, because you’re right. I mean, I can imagine that you just go from zero to 100 overnight as far as, you know, getting shakes, you know, and things like that, which is sadly, I mean, that’s the thing that people most associate with Parkinson’s. When they start shaking, it’s like, oh, they got Parkinson’s. But really, there’s, and I’m glad that you brought this up, there’s got to be signs that lead to that, you know, to that stage of Parkinson’s, right? What should we be looking for in either our elder family members or even, depending on who’s listening to this, even ourselves? If someone’s sitting on the fence going, I don’t know, is this Parkinson’s or is this nervous? What should people be looking for?

Speaker 3
So, I mean, tremors is one thing that people often look for. It could be just the tremor in a finger, in their foot. It typically is on one side of the body. Or on the other hand, you can have stiffness, rigidity, slow movement, a shuffling gait.

Speaker 3
I’m sure Siobhan and I working with seniors all the time, we see different gait patterns, the way people walk in the hallways at the senior communities. And, you know, sometimes whether it’s do they need some physical therapy, maybe their physical therapist would pick up on something. So keeping an eye on how their balance is.

Speaker 3
Do they have posture instability? So if you start to see those things, you definitely want to talk to your primary care physician or get with a neurologist. They are obviously trained to diagnose Parkinson’s disease in an early case.

Speaker 3
And sometimes they can refer you to a different type of scan that may see the lack of a brain chemical called dopamine, which is really where Parkinson’s comes from.

Speaker 1
And there’s no cure for this, right?

Speaker 3
Unfortunately not.

Speaker 1
But it can be treated. It can be treated with medications to curb some of this.

Speaker 3
And then also, sorry, go ahead. But, you know, activity and exercise are just as important as the medications that our Parkinson’s patients take. So we really promote that as well.

Speaker 2
And I think that aren’t there other interventions too, like where you can have like a cochlea implants, if I can say that word, and stuff like that? Isn’t there other things that can be done if you’re younger or if you catch it early?

Speaker 3
Yep. Actually, a colleague friend of mine recently had the deep brain stimulation or DBS implanted. And it’s a pretty intense surgery where they kind of almost have a pacemaker in the chest wall and leads or electrodes that are placed in the brain.

Speaker 3
And it connects and has a pulse generator, and it can be programmed to help really control those motor symptoms. So it’s a really remarkable development, the deep brain stimulation. I’ve known people who’ve had it for 15 years, and it makes such an impact on their life.

Speaker 3
However, it’s often, it doesn’t replace medication. It maybe will make your medication dosage not be so, maybe instead of taking three pills three times a day, you may be able to take one pill twice a day. So you work with your movement disorder specialist to figure out the right cocktail approach for you.

Speaker 3
You know, if you meet somebody with Parkinson’s, they often want to compare notes as to what medications they are taking or what are you taking. It’s really customized for each person. You know, I say if you’ve met someone with Parkinson’s, great, you’ve met one person with Parkinson’s because it is so specialized from person to person, what their experience is, much like snowflakes, much like dementia care.

Speaker 3
You know, we see that the brain is so intricate and, you know, how it presents a neurological disease is different person to person.

Speaker 1
Folks, you are listening to your next chapter, a production of The Heights at Avery Heights, a one-of-a-kind senior living community, centrally located near the most entertaining and historical spots in Connecticut, along with Siobhan Mattingly. I’m Gary Byron. Our guest this morning is the program director for the Connecticut chapter of the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, Holly Seymour. Holly, what are some of the services that you offer?

Speaker 3
Yeah, I mean, we offer some wonderful resources, Program director, as the program director, my phone number is posted on the website. If our community has a need to reach out directly with questions, need for resources and suggestions on available services in their area, and more. And APD also publishes over 40 different publications that they can download and print, regular webinars.

Speaker 3
And it really helps those with Parkinson’s, their care partners, friends, family, and healthcare professionals understand Parkinson’s care. even more. And we also offer exercise and wellness programs. We have a great list of local exercise classes that are beneficial, such as boxing, tai chi, yoga, dancing, and as we mentioned earlier, ping pong. And our website breaks it down throughout the state by town, and you can figure out which program that interests you is closest to your home. We also offer virtual programs.

Speaker 3
I must add that our Connecticut board member and physical therapist, Tom Atwood, hosts a virtual class on Tuesday afternoons called Big Time. So those are great for the Parkinson’s community to make the most of their movements, which often, as Parkinson’s progresses, their movements become smaller. So it really pushes them to have bigger movements.

Speaker 3
And by exaggerating their movements, they become kind of an average-sized movement. So we also even offer fitness training for fitness and health and wellness professionals, just so that that sector can be more familiar with Parkinson’s and how they can safely and effectively work with the Parkinson’s community.

Speaker 1
I’m just amazed at the amount of work that you’re able to do. Do you have partnerships at all? Yeah. I know you offer support groups, and it sounds like you have a wealth of resources, but are you partnered with any other organizations?

Speaker 3
We align ourselves with other Parkinson’s nonprofits to do research and produce publications. So we really have to link arms with our community partners to provide the support to people. You know, we have 16 support groups with another one starting in April.

Speaker 3
So some of those support groups are hosted at local churches. Some of them are at senior living communities or community or senior centers. And we can’t do what we do without the volunteers that volunteer their time and expertise to host those support groups.

Speaker 3
Because, again, as a program director, I only host one support group. But we have a host of professionals throughout the state that are dedicated to helping the Parkinson’s community. And we can’t do it without them, you know, and it makes such a difference.

Speaker 1
Holly, tell us about your Yellow Dot program.

Speaker 3
Yeah, I would love to. Our Yellow Dot program is not a part, an APDA-specific program. It’s actually a national triad program where they promote that seniors with a health care disorder such as Parkinson’s or something else might want to place that yellow sticker in their back rear car window.

Speaker 3
and it would alert the emergency personnel, police, EMT, that the driver has important medical information that they need to look at during that stop. So whether it be, hey, this person has a caregiver that you need to contact, or they have Parkinson’s and these are their medications that they take. because oftentimes, God forbid they have to go to the hospital, they may miss a dose of their normally structured Parkinson’s medications, and that can make a big impact on their symptoms and care needs.

Speaker 3
So we want them to know, you know, by taking a look at a simple card that is in their glove box, along with their license and registration and insurance information, It’s important that they know how they need to care for that person during that emergency stop.

Speaker 1
I would love for you to take a few minutes and talk about some upcoming events. When I say upcoming, I mean, they’re both taking place this month, in the month of April. And in different areas of the state, which is really cool.

Speaker 1
So let’s go in order. I believe you’ve got an art show coming up. Tell us all about that and where it’s going to be held.

Speaker 3
Yeah, so first I’ll say that April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. So that is really a big focus as to why we jam-pack April with a lot of great programs to bring awareness to Parkinson’s. So this Parkinson’s Artisan Show is a community grant from APDA supporting this art show. And it’s showcasing Parkinson’s artisans that reside locally.

Speaker 3
It’s being held at the Friends Gallery at the South Windsor Public Library from April 1st to the 22nd. And, you know, it’s so great. These artists are showing their resilience and creating beautiful art ranging from photography, painting, egg carving.

Speaker 3
It’s going to be incredible. And I have to credit an APDA Young Onset Support Group member, Jennifer Crowder, for planning and executing this art show. She is an artist.

Speaker 3
She has young onset Parkinson’s disease. And at 46, she is creating beautiful art and being such a testament to the optimism and resilience that comes with Parkinson’s.

Speaker 1
So the Parkinson’s Artisan Art Show, April 1st through the 22nd. It’s already underway. South Windsor Public Library, 1550 Sullivan Avenue in South Windsor. And people, they can just, do they need to make a reservation? Reservation, yes.

Speaker 3
No, they can just attend the art show. It’s in the upstairs art gallery. And there’s a guest book to sign in. We’ll have fun facts to educate the public about Parkinson’s. So they can drop in any time during the library’s normal business hour.

Speaker 1
All right, you’ve got another event in another part of the state, right?

Speaker 3
Also coming up. So we’re going down to Fairfield now for our annual Parkinson’s Symposium. On April 15th, we’re hosting an incredible day of educational presentations.

Speaker 3
We have Dr. Veronica Santini from Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Duarte Machado from Hartford HealthCare, and Dr. Bernardo Rodriguez from UConn Health. So the three of them are each doing an hour-long presentation on special topics related to Parkinson’s. And then we have a panel event where the audience can ask the panel anything. So it’ll be a really great opportunity to ask those burning questions.

Speaker 3
We have a physician. We have caregivers. We have a facilitator from a support group all on that panel, a person living with Parkinson’s. And I think it’s going to be a really great way to connect the community.

Speaker 3
And then, of course, we have great sponsors, APDA swag. Lunch is going to be served and being held at the Fairfield Woods Middle School Auditorium.

Speaker 1
There we go. That’s what I was trying to get at. The time and location.

Speaker 1
I know it’s on Saturday, April 15th. Tax day, my friends. What better way to get your mind off of tax day than to head on over to the annual Parkinson’s Symposium.

Speaker 1
But it’s going to be in Fairfield. Where? At Fairfield?

Speaker 1
Is it middle school? Fairfield Woods Middle School.

Speaker 3
And it’s registry or check-in starts at 9 a.m. And then the program starts at 10 a.m. and they go till three in the afternoon. So we’re really excited. You can go to our website to register.

Speaker 3
And that’s at apdaparkinson.org slash ct. And we’re taking registrations. We’ve had a great response to this event.

Speaker 3
In previous, last year we had an event in Hartford. So it’s nice to be able to bring our symposium to a different part of the state. And that’s our goal is to kind of change up locations so that different people can attend.

Speaker 1
I’m sorry, I’ve got to wrap this up. I just want you to give your website one more time.

Speaker 3
Sure. It’s www.apdaparkinson.org. And if I may, we have a great Optimism Walk in May. So hopefully you’ll check out our website. We’ll do that.

Speaker 1
Folks, you’ve been listening to the latest edition of your next chapter, Senior Living, with Siobhan Mattingly, the Heights Senior Living Specialist. Avery Heights is a beautiful senior living community nestled within 43 acres of nature, right in the heart of the junction between West Hartford, Newington, and Hartford. Those who live there have access to a full continuum of care, including independent and assisted living to memory care, and a whole lot more charming cottages with a true neighborhood feel.

Speaker 1
They’re all available to rent adjacent to the main building where those who need more assistance reside. Please visit AveryHeights.org or call 860-953-1201. Again, that’s 860-953-1201 to learn more about their own special brand of community, unlike any other in Connecticut.

Speaker 1
And I want to thank our guest, Holly Seymour, Program Director for the Connecticut Chapter of the Connecticut American Parkinson’s Disease Association. For Siobhan Mattingly, I’m Gary Byron. Thanks so much for listening.

Speaker 1
Until next time, have a good one, everybody.