Beaumont at Bryn Mawr in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, recently became one of a handful of life plan communities in the U.S. that is Parkinson’s disease certified by the Parkinson & Movement Disorder (PMD) Alliance.
Christy Lane is vice president of health services at Beaumont. (Courtesy of Beaumont at Bryn Mawr) Christy Lane, vice president of health services at Beaumont, worked through the certification process together with Dr. Richard Lange, a Beaumont resident and caregiver to his partner, Jeff Klein.
Their story is one of perseverance, optimism and hope. According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, nearly 1 million people in the U.S.
are living with Parkinson’s disease, and almost 90,000 people are newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s every year. After Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s has become the second-most-common neurodegenerative disease, for which the greatest risk factor is age. As a result, senior care and retirement communities must prepare for what the NIH calls “emerging evidence of a pandemic.
” Lange was caring for Klein, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s 12 years earlier, when he realized they needed additional help. “Jeff was getting sicker,” he said, “and especially during COVID, it was difficult to get the extra help we needed. I had stopped working to care for Jeff, but I was only 64 — too young to move to an isolated apartment in some care facility.
” Thus began their search for a supportive community in the Philadelphia a.
