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Date: 6/30/2020
SOUTHAMPTON – Between exercises, art activities, and handwriting workshops, the Art Cart and DopaFit facilities in Southampton help residents fight Parkinson’s disease and help keep a positive attitude.
Saba Shahid, the founder of Art Cart, said that her goal originally was to help people that could not smile as a result of different motor illnesses, but was soon inspired to work with Parkinson’s patients after her mother-in-law passed away from the disease. She said, “I’ve always been an artist and saw the need for alternative therapy other than medication to help with disease progression and to give them hope and confidence in another way.”
One of the biggest pieces of Shahid’s work with people that have Parkinson’s is helping with Micrographia, which is one of the first symptoms of the disease and affects handwriting abilities. To help people dealing with the disease, she said she internationally published two editions of her workshop book, “Let’s Combat Micrographia,” in 2016 and 2018 before being published in Spanish for the first time in June.
She added that the book works as an instruction manual to help people try to write again. “It’s like you have an instructor in front of you, so there’s different activities and exercises they do – from hand exercises, to working on your posture, and using different assisted tools like using pens that have bigger grips or larger surface areas,” she said.
Through the Art Cart, Shahid said they currently offer online activities focused on creativity and improving motor skills for people living with Parkinson’s. She explained that one of the courses is a finger-painting course that focuses on using a hand that is affected by a tremor as a result of the disease. “We work to improve confidence and refine motor skills by teaching them how to finger-paint in the hand that tremors. It helps rebuild the connections with their fingers and hands, and at the end of it they’re creating something beautiful they are able to take home with them,” she said.
She added that the artwork from the Art Cart is constantly being rotated out through four different hospitals in Massachusetts.
In addition to the Art Cart, Shahid and her husband, Chad Moir, also offer more exercise courses through its DopaFit centers in Southampton and Worcester. She said, “If a person with Parkinson’s came to our center, they would be able to find everything from exercise to art, to everything in the middle.”
Some of the activities offered include boxing, high-intensity exercise, yoga, and cognitive exercises. She added that the exercises are split into different levels to accommodate the different needs of the members at DopaFit, and all of their courses are currently available online as a result of the pandemic.
Shahid also said that they offer courses based on her book through DopaFit as well. “It was a pretty rigorous program, but the participants followed what we were teaching them and doing the homework. The onus was on them to take what they learn and apply it, it was amazing to see that 90 percent of the people had their handwriting improve after just six weeks.”
In order to keep up with the high demand for the course across the country and world, Shahid started an online course before the pandemic even began.
Along with physically helping the patients, Shahid said the courses also help with positivity, improving confidence, and individuality. “The way our curriculum has been set up is to make sure what we’re teaching, they can do at home and from that improve their everyday living. Both of our programs have been designed to bring back positivity and smiles, so there’s hope and the ability to know that they can push past it,” she said.
While she was nervous about the shift to online courses, Shahid said that the reception has been excellent. She said, “Our attendance has been amazing, at first we were nervous because we weren’t sure how our members would utilize the online component, but we’re impressed with how our members are doing and it’s been amazing to see that we can be together even though we’re apart.”
Shahid added that she is happy that her work has impacted people across the world. “I’m so happy to have relationships with all of these people, where I am now is way more meaningful to me than if I were to be an MD,” she said. “It has been a remarkable experience and a wonderful journey to get to this point.”