Welcome: Getting started on the forum

Welcome to the Parkinson's UK forum.

The forum community is here for people affected by Parkinson's. This includes people with Parkinson's, friends, carers and families.

Community members share information, experiences… and sometimes a virtual cup of tea.

Introduce yourself. We're waiting to meet you

The 'Meet and greet' section gives new members an opportunity to introduce themselves and meet others.

You can write a little about yourself and why you're on the forum.

To introduce yourself, go to the 'Meet and greet' section and click on 'New topic'.

Have you signed up to receive private messages?

If you've signed up to receive private messages, please be aware that this operates through email.

This means that when you send a private message to another community member, your email address will be visible to them.

If you would prefer not to share your email address, you can stop receiving private messages by changing the settings under 'My account'.

Alternatively, you can create an email address specifically for use on the forum.

Parkinson's UK can't be responsible for the content of private messages sent between community members.

A few things to remember

By signing up to the forum, you agree to our forum terms and conditions. These set out the legal obligations that we all must abide by. Take a few minutes to read them before you begin.

If there are rules that you do not understand, ask us and we'll explain them.

Now, be sure to review the forum guidelines. This sets out how we relate to each other on the forum. It is also a guide to how you can expect to be treated here.

If you see a post that you feel breaches our rules, report it to a moderator.

You can do this either by sending a message to forum@parkinsons.org.uk or by clicking on the blue 'Report this post' button at the upper right-hand corner of each message.

Next, see what others are talking about

You can see the ongoing conversations in a number of ways:

• Click on 'Forum home'. From here you can see all the sections of the forum.
  
• Click on 'Latest activity'. From here, you can see conversations posted in the last 12 hours. In the upper right-hand corner, you can change this time frame to periods of 1 hour to 48 hours.
• If you have a particular question or you're interested in a specific topic, try 'Search the forum' on the upper left-hand side.
  

Is there a topic you're interested in?

Use the 'Search the forum' facility to find previous conversations about your topic.

Ready to post more?

There are a number of forums including About the forum, Daily life, Treatments, Carers, friends and family and more.

It is worth taking a look at the 'stickies' about each section.

You can do this by going to the forum and clicking on any section. At the top, you will see a post with the word 'sticky' before it.

Stickies are introductory posts that stay at the top of the section.

They provide important information about the various sections and where you can go for additional help.

Abbreviations and acronyms

To help you get started, here are some terms that are commonly used on the forum:

• ASAP - as soon as possible
  
• DA - dopamine agonist
  
• dx - diagnosed
  
• GP - general practitioner
  
• ICB - impulsive and compulsive behaviour
  
• OH - other half
  
• meds - medicines, medication
  
• neuro - neurologist
  
• PD - Parkinson's disease
  
• pls - please
  
• PwP - people with Parkinson's
  
• SN - substantia nigra

If you ever have a question or want to contact us, email us at forum@parkinsons.org.uk or click on 'Contact the community team' on the left-hand forum menu.

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