VOLVOX: Making Narrative Medicine Happen Alumni Speaker Series

Beyond the Tremor | Stigma, Story, and an Integrated Model of Care for Parkinson’s

Speaker: Sneha Mantri, MD, SPS ’11 in Narrative Medicine

Moderator: Cherie Henderson, PhD, SPS'14 in Narrative Medicine

Clinical care for Parkinson's disease often emphasizes motor disability such as slowness, stiffness and tremor, but quality of life suffers more from underrecognized psychosocial issues like stigma, isolation, and distress.

In this talk, Sneha Mantri will outline a new “one-stop shop” approach to care that integrates rehabilitative therapy with patient narrative through a 55-word story written by the patient or care partner.

We will see how these stories can conform to or complicate Arthur Frank's classic illness narrative schemata, and we’ll discuss practical implementation of narrative medicine in a busy clinical practice, both in-person and online, as well as opportunities for collaboration across institutions.