More than 21 Parkinson’s NSW Support Groups are now meeting regularly via the video-chat application called Zoom.

Zoom is free and can be used on any computer or smartphone.

Support Group Coordinator Felicity Jones helps some of the Group Leaders to set up their meetings and invite participants to join online, then facilitates as people familiarise themselves with this new way of meeting.

“It’s really rewarding to see people who were initially reluctant to adopt this technology find out how easy it is, then start to have fun with it. Some groups are even setting fun themes for each of their Zoom meetings, like wearing funny hats or all dressing in a particular colour,” said Felicity.

Zoom also provides opportunities to link in guests from other organisations who can present to and converse with all participants – just like a guest speaker at a face-to-face meeting.

For example, representatives of the Council of the Ageing (COTA) and Carers NSW have joined recent Zoom meetings.

In addition to online meetings for individual Groups, Felicity facilitates a newly launched Support Group Leader Zoom meeting which will take place every two weeks.

The initial meeting attracted 29 Leadership Team (Committee) members from 23 different Groups.

“It was great to participate in my first Zoom meeting this morning. Having never tried it before I found it relatively easy to navigate and now look forward to future ones with you and Carers NSW. Great to see so many people and groups participating and ideas coming through for interaction in these ISO times. Thanks for organising the Zoom meeting” Laurelle from the Port Stephens (formerly Tomaree) Support Group said.

A regular Carers Zoom meeting has also been started up, connecting people from across NSW.

Want to learn how to set up Zoom meetings for your Support Group participants, Carers or Leadership Teams? Contact:

Felicity Jones
E: felicity.jones@parkinsonsnsw.org.au
T: 8051 1900