The World Parkinson Coalition trained more than 400 people in Phoenix before its congress opened there. The Parkinson Ready program reached staff across nine sessions at the convention center and four hotels.
The coalition held its World Parkinson Congress in Phoenix in May. The training prepared banquet, housekeeping, security and other staff to support delegates living with Parkinson’s.
Why the Coalition Built the Program
Eli Pollard, executive director of the World Parkinson Coalition, traces the program to a question the coalition asked more than two decades ago. Its leaders wanted to know why no global meeting for Parkinson’s invited patients to take part.
The first World Parkinson Congress ran in Washington, D.C. in 2006. More than 3,000 people attended. Of those, 1,000 were living with Parkinson’s and 1,800 were neuroscientists, clinicians and other specialists.
Pollard said participant feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Advocates, the term WPC uses for participants with Parkinson’s, welcomed access to world leaders in research and treatment. For many of the research scientists, the congress was the first chance to discuss the disease with a person who has it.
The arrival of hundreds of people with Parkinson’s created confusion at hotels, Pollard said. Participants told the coalition they wished the city had done something to prepare hotel staff.
“A lot of times the feedback you get isn’t necessarily something you can address,” she said. “I remember reading that feedback and thinking we can do something about this.”
From Glasgow to Phoenix
Before the next gathering of the triennial meeting, held in Glasgow in 2010, Pollard approached the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, then the city’s convention bureau. Molly Doheny, its head at the time, offered the city’s help to bring people to the table if the coalition supplied the trainer.
Working with the nonprofit Parkinson’s UK, Pollard built a basic training program for hotel, convention center, police, fire and airport staff. She described the target group as anyone who might come into contact with WPC delegates.
A Parkinson’s disease nurse specialist delivered the sessions. The material covered the difficulties with speech and movement that delegates can face. Participants learned that Parkinson’s affects several body systems, with a wide range of symptoms that often fluctuate. “No two persons look alike,” Pollard said.
The training also covered how staff in different roles can offer support. “If you don’t know what it means for someone to have Parkinson’s and you don’t know how to help, it can make you feel uncomfortable,” Pollard said. “We want them to feel like this is natural. People with Parkinson’s have this every day.”
Pollard called the Glasgow program wildly successful. WPC has repeated Parkinson Ready in each of the five destinations that have hosted the triennial conference since, Phoenix included.
The Phoenix Partners
In each destination, WPC connects with local partners. In Phoenix the coalition worked with the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center. Together the two organizations identified two trainers, and both took part in all of the Parkinson Ready programming. Pollard said the partners sat on the steering committee and helped make sure the sessions would suit the local community.
Kylie Leslie, assistant director of destination services for Visit Phoenix, was the liaison between WPC and the city’s hospitality community and other support staff.
Leslie said more than 400 people completed training across nine sessions. The group included banquet, housekeeping, security and other staff at the convention center and at four Phoenix hotels. Emergency medical technicians, public transit employees, and staff from the police and fire departments also trained, along with the Downtown Phoenix Ambassadors, the safety and hospitality teams who work on Phoenix streets.
The Phoenix Convention Center is owned by the City of Phoenix, which opened the training to all city employees. Visit Phoenix invited staff from area destination organizations to the sessions.
What Staff Carried Back to the Floor
The PCMA account puts each session at about 75 minutes, including a question-and-answer period. Pollard said participants often bring their own experience to that discussion.
One housekeeping employee at a Phoenix hotel suggested that staff extend the wait after knocking before entering a guest room from three seconds to 10 seconds, giving delegates more time to answer the door. After learning that WPC participants would attend a baseball game downtown, a city employee suggested that police directing traffic near the ballpark give pedestrians extra time to cross the street that evening.
There is no official data yet on how the training affected delegates with Parkinson’s. Pollard said the contribution to their comfort was very obvious. “Phoenix went above and beyond,” she said.
Leslie measures the effect differently. “We’ve already seen the confidence level of our staff go up when it comes to working with groups with medical conditions,” she said.
The training also broadened the destination’s ability to welcome visitors of all ability levels, Leslie said. She pointed out that the skills taught to hotel and convention center staff apply to many conditions.
A Legacy Beyond the Congress
Pollard described a wider goal than the comfort of the delegates who attended. WPC wants people with Parkinson’s to feel welcome, safe and secure in the cities that host the congress. “We really want to leave a legacy behind,” she said. “We want the city to be better off when we leave than before we arrived.”
A study by the Montreal-based nonprofit MEET4IMPACT followed the 6th World Parkinson Congress in Barcelona in 2023. The report records 31 per cent of Parkinson Ready trainees applying the knowledge at work, 81 per cent discussing it with colleagues and 97 per cent finding it useful in personal life.
Pollard said the spread of that awareness matters because Parkinson’s is the fastest-growing neurological disease on the planet. She described a need to raise understanding of the disease’s complexity in workplaces and in personal lives.