Reaching Out Beyond Self
Participating in SHARP-PWP may have elicited a desire to support and
assist one another. Some participants noted their belief that sharing
their knowledge and personal experiences contributed to others’ coping
and well-being. One participant summarized, “I wanna help me, and I
wanna help them, and they’re my people, … You have options, you
can stay at home and be miserable and everything, or you can get out and
laugh and have a good time.”. Participants may have drawn satisfaction
and purpose from the belief that they were helping their group peers, an
experience that appeared to reflect positively on their sense of
identity: “What I have learned is that I do have skills that I think
can now benefit the community”. The appetite for altruism extended to
participation in this research project. By participating in research,
several participants mentioned they were helping others with Parkinson’s
as well, with one commenting that the research was “not just for the
good of us but for the good of others that would come after us”.