Post written by Dr. Blindauer
The Davis Phinney Foundation brought their Victory Summit to the Milwaukee area in October. One of the highlights of these Summits is the Local Hero Award. Our dear friend, Ellen Jante, wife of our patient, Dale Jante, received this award.
Ellen Jante, 61, has been an educator, advocate and inspiration to the Milwaukee-area Parkinson’s community for several years. Following her husband Dale’s Parkinson’s disease (PD) diagnosis more than 20 years ago, Ellen has used her energy and determination to touch hundreds of lives, whether tirelessly speaking to physical therapists and others about PD care, advancing public awareness by recruiting experts to educate local residents with PD and their caregivers on ways to live better with PD today, or successfully advocating for expanded coverage of PD treatment costs.
Ellen has served as co-facilitator of the West Allis Memorial Hospital Support Group for 10 years. She has spoken about Parkinson’s disease to audiences large and small, including groups of physical, speech and occupational therapists to teach them the skills of dealing with their patients on a daily basis.
As a passionate advocate, Ellen championed a major change in Medicare reimbursement for people with PD in 2002 as she successfully led an effort to secure Medicare coverage for her husband’s deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery. Since then, many patients across the country have benefited from DBS without personally bearing its high expense.
Ellen believes in exercise and encourages people with PD to attend a Parkinson's exercise class twice a week. She promotes training caregivers to follow through at home with exercises conducted during therapy treatments.
Here is some media coverage about Ellen:
BizTimes Daily
Racine Journal Times