9 hours Ago By By Lucinda Breeding-Gonzales Staff Writer
All it took was a set of paddles, two tables and some space at the YMCA in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Those things — hardly high-tech or complicated — showed Texas Woman’s University student Sarah Shoun that she had more than a capstone project for her occupational therapy doctorate. She had a group of volunteers who already worked for the Gulf Coast chapter of the Parkinson’s Foundation and a YMCA that people already visited for Parkinson’s-centered activities.
Shoun earned her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and considered nursing as she looked to the future. But nursing wasn’t quite right. Texas Woman's University student Sarah Shoun developed a "Pingpong for Parkinson's" program at the Baton Rouge YMCA.
Volunteers there will continue the program, which was Shoun's capstone project for the occupational therapy doctoral degree she will earn in May. “I wasn’t interested in the medications and needles so much as I was interested in helping somebody do what they want to be able to do when they want to be able to do it,” Shoun said. She also considered physical therapy, which helps people regain or get back their strength and range of motion after injury, illness or surgery.
When she was shadowing a physical therapist, Shoun met an occupational therapist who visited the clinic. “She only did hands,” Shoun said. “So she did postsurgery therapy, and that was interesting.
But I was like, ‘There’s got to be something more.’” She looked into the specialty, and she was in the right place. The TWU occupational therapy program has tied for the No.
16 spot for programs across the country. The program prepares students to develop expertise in the discipline and points them toward community-based practice. Shoun found herself in a rigorous program that has high expectations of its graduates, whether they end up in practice, research or advocacy.
As Shoun settled on occupational therapy as her career, she planned for a career with variety. “When I graduate, I’ll be a generalist, so I won’t be a hand therapist. I’ll be an occupational therapist so I could work in any setting, with any population anywhere, which is really nice and flexible.
” Capstone projects are assigned in programs across disciplines and are requirements for a number of programs. Some undergraduates must complete them to earn a bachelor’s degree, and some graduate students encounter capstone projects to get a master’s or doctoral degree. A capstone project is where theory meets application, practice or both.
Shoun said she wanted to do a practical capstone project after finishing her classroom and clinical work. “When I first was coming up with my capstone project, I was going to do pickleball because pickleball has big, gross [motor] movements. And I was like, ‘That would be really good.
’ But being a student, the liability for pingpong versus pickleball with a lot lower, and since I’m not licensed, you know, [it was] just less of a liability. “And I’ve played pickleball twice, and I still can’t keep track of the score,” she said. “So, how was I supposed to teach other people that?” She talked to her faculty capstone manager, TWU professor Camille Ko, who specializes in working with people with Parkinson’s disease, and pingpong came up as an alternative.
“Since I was like, ‘I can’t do pickleball,’ I was thinking pingpong is kind of similar to that: a lot of hand-eye coordination, a lot of balance, a lot of mobility,” Shoun said. “It uses less mobility than pickleball, but still some, a lot of reaching, a lot of attention and concentration.” Pingpong has other inherent perks: It’s fun, and it’s something a lot of people can do.
She went back to her hometown and found a space and a volunteer who was ready to put Shoun’s capstone project — Pingpong for Parkinson’s — into action. BJ Bement was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when he was in his 40s, making him a person with “young-onset” Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease.
People with the disease often experience a host of symptoms associated with the illness, such as tremors, muscle stiffness and difficulties with speech and the volume and dynamism of their voice. Usually, older adults develop Parkinson’s, but Bement is among the 10% of people who receive a diagnosis under the age of 40. He’s in his 50s now, and said that as soon as he was diagnosed, he was determined to continue being an extrovert.
“I’ve always been one to just hop in the car and go, and with no general place in mind,” Bement said. “Two of the worst symptoms with Parkinson’s are fatigue and apathy. And the apathy is horrible.
In fact, the past two weeks for me have been simply miserable because it doesn’t matter how much I want to do something. It’s like the body won’t respond.” Texas Woman's University student Sarah Shoun, left, is shown with Larry Crawford, center, and BJ Bement.
Bement, a Baton Rouge resident who has Parkinson's disease, will lead the program at the end of the capstone project. Texas Woman's University student Sarah Shoun developed a "Pingpong for Parkinson's" program at the Baton Rouge YMCA. Volunteers there will continue the program, which was Shoun's capstone project for the occupational therapy doctoral degree she will earn in May.
People with Parkinson's disease participate, often joined by their caregivers, in Pingpong for Parkinson's at the YMCA in Baton Rouge, La. The program started as a capstone project by TWU occupational therapy doctoral student Sarah Shoun. One of the stations at the weekly program is a game of cornhole, which helps Parkinson's patients keep their cognition and physical movement active.
People diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease play games together, often joined by their caregivers, at the YMCA in Baton Rouge, La. One of the stations in the weekly Pingpong for Parkinson’s program includes trying to bounce a pingpong ball into a plastic cup. The party game helps Parkinson’s patients exercise cognition, mental attention and hand-eye coordination, all of which can be diminished by the disease.
Texas Woman's University student Sarah Shoun, left, is shown with Larry Crawford, center, and BJ Bement. Bement, a Baton Rouge resident who has Parkinson's disease, will lead the program at the end of the capstone project. Texas Woman's University student Sarah Shoun developed a "Pingpong for Parkinson's" program at the Baton Rouge YMCA.
Volunteers there will continue the program, which was Shoun's capstone project for the occupational therapy doctoral degree she will earn in May. People with Parkinson's disease participate, often joined by their caregivers, in Pingpong for Parkinson's at the YMCA in Baton Rouge, La. The program started as a capstone project by TWU occupational therapy doctoral student Sarah Shoun.
One of the stations at the weekly program is a game of cornhole, which helps Parkinson's patients keep their cognition and physical movement active. People diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease play games together, often joined by their caregivers, at the YMCA in Baton Rouge, La. One of the stations in the weekly Pingpong for Parkinson’s program includes trying to bounce a pingpong ball into a plastic cup.
The party game helps Parkinson’s patients exercise cognition, mental attention and hand-eye coordination, all of which can be diminished by the disease. Bement knows to expect that the fatigue and the apathy that flattens his moods and even how he expresses himself, though in his interview for this story, he was spirited and cheerful. Bement is the president of the Gulf Coast Chapter of the Parkinson’s Foundation and has spent much of the last decade getting people with Parkinson’s connected with information, support and other people who share the diagnosis.
He said he went all in for Shoun’s Pingpong for Parkinson’s for several reasons. He has been part of an improvisation group for people with Parkinson’s, called ”Yes and ..
. Exercise ,” which gets people with the disease together for fun and for cognitive activities. “My whole purpose and advocacy is to get people engaged, connected,” Bement said “Because medications and doctor visits can handle a lot of Parkinson’s.
But I believe that socialization, connection and interaction is medicine as well. And if you don’t do those things, you can cause just as much physical harm.” Bement understands why people with the disease might want to stay home, but he knows how much healthier and happier they could be with support, fun and socialization.
Bement calls Shoun’s program “a really great idea.” He said they team up to play pingpong with other people with Parkinson’s and with caregivers. Some people stand and play, but people who have less mobility can sit at the table, shorten their playing area and play from a chair.
Shoun plays songs to cue participants that a new activity is coming up, which helps with cognition. “The big thing is socialization,” Shoun said. “And then you also have stations for my class, so you start it with the pingpong table, and you move to different stations throughout the session.
” The stations are fun, adaptable spots where participants work on attention, cognitive exercises and movement. Bement said Shoun was open for expert and experienced advice. That’s how Pingpong for Parkinson’s added a game of “verbal pingpong” to the Friday gatherings at the Baton Rouge YMCA.
Shoun or Bement will choose the rules, like alphabet city, and the group moves through each letter of the alphabet to name a city that starts with that letter. And Pingpong for Parkinson’s always carves out time for discussion. Shoun said Bement has been invaluable.
“He’s my mentor, and he has brought so many ideas we’ve been able to use,” Shoun said. “One of the reasons I wanted to do this as a community-based project is because you learn so much. But this is also where I live, and I like being able to do something for the community where I live.
” Shoun said the project has also given her a front-row seat to the sorts of realities of living with the illness. “One of the things I wanted to do was to improve the relationship between people with Parkinson’s and their caregivers,” she said. The weekly session is a way for caregivers to get a few hours to themselves, either for respite or to tick boxes off of their to-do list, Bement said.
Shoun said she has already seen how the simple weekly pingpong meetup has benefited families. They don’t have to spend a lot of money to participate, and they don’t have to organize gear. She recalled a couple who have a child with cerebral palsy.
When the husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, the wife already had a skill set to lend to the situation. But a life-altering diagnosis can bring depression and anxiety into relationships. Shoun said one week, that couple didn’t come.
They showed up the following week and explained they had a conflict but were thrilled to be back. “They told us they always looked forward to pingpong. They said, ‘This is the most fun we have all week,’” Shoun said.
“That really meant a lot.” In Baton Rouge, a local television news network also took notice and produced a segment on the project . In TWU’s occupational therapy program, faculty lean on their students to create and complete capstone projects that are sustainable, which means the program challenges students to contribute something that can be replicated and continued once they’ve graduated and joined the profession.
Bement said Shoun’s Pinpong for Parkinson’s is just that. The group used a grant through the Parkinson’s Foundation to buy two new pingpong tables for the YMCA, and when the 14-week capstone ends, Bement will take over and continue the weekly sessions. He credits the YMCA for supporting the various events and programs for Parkinson’s patients.
Ko, the TWU faculty manager, said capstone projects that are sustainable demand that TWU occupational therapy students think more long-term and commit to people-centered work. Ultimately, she said, occupational therapists succeed when they keep patients as their central consideration. “Going into the community and just interacting with people and meeting them where they’re at, I think, is very helpful,” Ko said.
“And [it’s] very good for the students because they see people’s lived experiences. They see their lives just outside of ..
. an outpatient clinic, and somebody sees me for an hour, and then they go, right? As a profession, I feel like occupational therapists really focus on changing habits.” Working in the community teaches TWU students how patients really live.
“For instance, when I’m working with patients and giving them exercises, if I gave them 15 exercises, would I really go home and do 15 exercises? It makes you look at patients where they are,” Ko said. Ko said Shoun’s capstone is a success because she included the patients in the plan. “It’s not like Sarah’s just going there and saying, ‘OK, this is what we’re gonna do,’ right? It’s like, ‘Hey, what is interesting to you? What do you want to do?’ “It brought that needs assessment as part of our capstone process as well, so she’s able to go in and talk with them about what’s at stake.
Like, ‘What is important to y’all?” This is what we want our students to do.”.
