PLANNING WORKSHEETS

The Planning Dilemma

Rather than dealing with a shorter-term or more predictable disease, the Parkinson’s journey is like a marathon that is fraught with symptoms that progressively worsen, but often do so in unpredictable stages. As we try to slow this ‘progress’, we live with a constant, heavy tension. On the one hand, we pour our energy into the present—we do our absolute best to have a good day today, and perhaps tomorrow. On the other hand, we try to look beyond to our uncertain future.

If we are honest with ourselves, we acknowledge that we are too frequently slow in developing longer-term plans. This is entirely understandable. Long-term planning is emotionally taxing, and we are already feeling overwhelmed at times.

However, we must recognize that our lack of preparation can set us up for crises that could have been completely avoided. Recently, as a Group, we decided to tackle a vital question:

How can we make longer-term planning easier for families like ours? In response:

The first two ‘Buttons’ below provide you with downloadable planning guides where you can fill in the blanks and create your own plan. One is a WORD document and the other a PAGES (Apple) document. Over time, we hope these tools will help you to develop a comprehensive plan that you can modify as needed.

The following three ‘Buttons’ offer the same planning steps in printable PDF documents.

We hope these documents will help make your planning easier, ultimately helping you to avoid crises that can occur without adequate planning.

We have also noticed that the Parkinson’s Foundation has recently developed a helpful array of planning resources, which we encourage you to review as well:‍

https://www.parkinson.org/resources-support/carepartners/planning-ahead ‍