A multidisciplinary team of neurologists-neurorehabilitators, physiatrists, physiotherapists, psychologists and social workers to achieve 360-degree care of Parkinson’s and Parkinsonism patients. This is the innovative aspect of the Mirt project (Multidisciplinar Intensive Rehabilitation Treatment), which focuses on improving the patient’s quality of life, successfully implemented by the Paolo VI Foundation of Pescara, a point of reference for Central-Southern Italy of the Mirt Park Project, a network of ten centers in Italy whose specialists met on Saturday 1 June in Pescara. The occasion was the second Mirt national congress “Multidisciplinary care for patients with Parkinson’s disease”. “Parkinson’s disease – explains Giuseppe Frazzitta, neurologist, neurorehabilitator, as well as creator and president of the Mirt Park Project – is a disease that does not reduce life expectancy”. therefore the project aims to “allow the patient to have an excellent quality of life. Unfortunately, a traditional, pharmacological-only treatment leads to the development of important side effects, causing a dramatic worsening of the quality of life, as well as a reduction in life expectancy”, and “this must be absolutely avoided through multidisciplinary management by various specialists , so that the patient can immediately start some physical activity, has a support psychologist and, above all, the lowest possible doses of drugs can be used”. The Mirt Park Project boasts a thirty-year history, counting more than 80 scientific publications and 4 thousand citations in major international journals. A project of which the Paul VI Foundation is a prestigious partner. “A structure of international excellence – underlines Frazzitta – for the quality of the operators” and the treatment opportunities for “the various rehabilitation problems”.
“We have activated a Mirt day hospital with patients from different regions, who undergo a neurological evaluation on the basis of which a rehabilitation protocol is drawn up which the patient carries out at home, through video lessons, then giving us feedback on his progress” , explains Carla Iarlori, neurologist and neurorehabilitator at the Mirt Center at the Paolo VI Foundation. Furthermore, “parent-training meetings dedicated to patients and their caregivers” have been activated. Satisfaction also on the part of the archbishop of Pescara-Penne, mons. Tommaso Valentinetti: “This Foundation draws its inspiration from the Latin motto ‘mens sana in corpore sano’. That is, a calm, serene, pacified soul and a possibility of reasoning that can be adequate to face the reality of life can only be obtained if there is a body that in some way reacts and reacts well. The treatments carried out in this center are particularly suitable for this type of response and the Mirt protocol, designed by Doctor Frazzitta, strengthens the achievement of this objective”.
