Hi
Does any one know what organisations can offer children support. We think that our daughter may be getting a bit upset by seeing her mum has she his and also she is at that age when her body is changing but mum can not give her and do the things mums do at this age. One of her older sisiters has taken on this role. She does mix with friends at school and has had a friend come here and she goes to her house. She is not into youth clubs or brownies. Tried them. She prefers reading and quiz/ game type things.
We talk to her but is not the same has some one who is not connected.
Do the schools have someone we could speak to now a days.

Hi Belleyetere.

You don't say how old your daughter is, but from what you say I'm guessing that she is about 10 or 11, and therefore at primary school?

I'm not sure what provision primary schools have for this kind of thing, but at my son's high school they have counsellors/pastoral care staff. They also have a team of 6th formers who the younger kids can talk to in confidence if they do not feel comfortable talking to an adult. So it's worth asking the school what is available.

You may also want to ring the PDS helpline, because they have leaflets which are written for children/young people who have a parent with PD. There is also a book called "Our Mum Has Parkinson's" by Karen Goodall, which is written from the point of view of an 11 year old girl. This is available from the PDS, so the helpline should be able to advise you how to obtain a copy if you are interested.

There is probably other information online re counselling for children. Please bear in mind though that all this is not suitable for all children. My son was 11 when I was diagnosed (he is 14 now) and he has always known the facts about PD, but he prefers not to talk about it as much as I do! He also recently underwent a traumatic experience of his own, after which counselling was suggested, but he declined as he preferred to deal with it by just getting on with things. In the end it was me who needed the counselling.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes.

Kathy

Hi,

As the author of the book,I would recommend it if your daughter is indeed of primary age. It was tried and tested on the children of the school I last taught at and was very well received.I think stories are one of the best ways to engage primary age children in subjects that are'challenging'.It has a glossary of terms at the back and tries to see the humour as well as the difficulties faced on a day to day basis by this family.
The book is free-this is not a sales pitch.I hope your daughter gets some comfort from it.
Megan 2000

Hi Megan2000.

Pleased to "meet" you. My son hasn't actually read the book (he is not really into reading and said that he didn't want to read it!) but I can appreciate how helpful it must be for some families. So I just wanted to thank you for writing it.

It says on the back of the book that you live in Leicester. I live in Cheshire now, but I am from Leicester originally. Small world!

Thanks again.

Kathy