CentraState Medical Center is offering a 12-week dance program for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) that will run from September 4 to November 25, 2019, Monday and Wednesdays from 3-4:30 p.m.

The free program is led by CentraState physical therapists who are specially trained in working with patients who have PD and similar diagnoses.

“We’ve gotten great feedback on this program from those who participated in the last session,” says Jennifer De Los Santos, PT, DPT, who teaches with fellow therapist Amy Ferentino, PTA. “Studies have shown that dance not only helps with the physical symptoms of the disease, but also elevates mood, reduces stress and increases social connections.”

Parkinson disease is a progressive, neurodegenerative movement disorder that is often accompanied by impaired balance and walking and reduced quality of life.

De Los Santos hopes to collect data from class participants as part of a research study. To be eligible, participants must be over the age of 18 and have been diagnosed with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease or Parkinsonism, including but not limited to: Multiple System Atrophy, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Coricobasal Syndrome, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, drug-induced Parkinsonism or Vascular Parkinsonism.

For more information or to sign up for the program, contact the CentraState Outpatient Rehabilitation Department by calling 732-294-2700 (option 2).