The Michael J. Fox Foundation Releases New Care Partner Guide to Support Families Living with Parkinson's

• "Facing Parkinson's Together" offers practical guidance, community insight and connection for care partners at every stage of the Parkinson's journey
• Download the digital guide for free at michaeljfox.org/carepartners

NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its mission to improve life today for people living with Parkinson's disease while accelerating a cure, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) today announced the release of Facing Parkinson's Together: A Guide for Care Partners. This comprehensive, easy-to-navigate and digital-only resource is designed to support anyone caring for or supporting a person living with Parkinson's disease, from spouses and adult children to friends and extended family. The launch of the guide is part of MJFF's broader commitment to supporting people and families living with Parkinson's through research, education, connection and community resources.

Guides like Facing Parkinson's Together serve as on ramps to connect care partners not only to practical information and emotional support, but also to opportunities for education, community, and research participation that help speed progress toward better treatments and a cure.

Meeting the Growing Needs of Parkinson's Care Partners

Care partners play a critical role in the well-being of people living with Parkinson's, often providing emotional, logistical and hands-on support for years or even decades. According to a 2025 National Alliance for Caregiving report supported by MJFF, Parkinson's care partners provide an average of 31 hours of care per week, with 74% identifying as the primary care partner. Among those employed full time, 50% report disruptions to their work schedules, and many reduce hours, take leave or retire early as a result of caregiving responsibilities.

Despite this essential role, many care partners report feeling unprepared, overwhelmed or isolated. Facing Parkinson's Together was developed to meet this need—offering practical tools, emotional insight and real-world perspectives for care partners across the full Parkinson's journey, from diagnosis through later stages of disease.

"Care partnership is love in action, but it can also be exhausting, emotional, and isolating," said Rachel Dolhun, MD, DipABLM, principal medical advisor at The Michael J. Fox Foundation and a movement disorder specialist. "This guide was created to help care partners feel less alone and more supported, with trusted information they can return to again and again as Parkinson's evolves."

A Practical, Community-Centered Resource

Facing Parkinson's Together brings together medical expertise, psychosocial insight, and lived experience to help care partners navigate the realities of Parkinson's while also caring for themselves. Designed to be flexible and easy to use, the guide can be read cover to cover or referenced as new challenges arise. The free, digital guide is available for download at michaeljfox.org/carepartners.

The guide includes:

• Clear explanations of what care partnership looks like and how it changes over time
  
  
• Practical tips for navigating medical care, daily life and future planning
  
  
• Guidance on communication, relationships and emotional well-being
  
  
• Dedicated support for care partner self-care and burnout prevention
  
  
• Printable tools and worksheets for reflection and planning
  
  
• Community quotes and stories woven throughout, reflecting lived experience

The guide also includes built-in navigation and links to help readers quickly find the information most relevant to where they are in their journey. 

Developed with Experts and the Parkinson's Community

Facing Parkinson's Together was developed by MJFF in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of Parkinson's clinicians, social workers and researchers, and informed by the lived experiences of 10 care partners from across the Parkinson's community. Contributors include spouses, adult children, parents, friends and long-distance care partners, reflecting diverse relationships, identities and stages of disease.

A foreword by Lonnie Ali, care partner to the late Muhammad Ali and member of MJFF's Founders Council, reflects on the challenges and meaning of care partnership and underscores the importance of compassion for loved ones and oneself.

"I wish I had a resource like this when I began my care partner journey," writes Ali in the guide. "Care partnership is not a burden; it is a profound expression of love. Having trusted guidance and community can make all the difference."

Facing Parkinson's Together: A Guide for Care Partners was made possible through support from Acadia Pharmaceuticals. Partner support allows The Michael J. Fox Foundation to provide high-quality educational resources to the Parkinson's community while directing donor-raised dollars toward high-impact research. The Foundation is solely responsible for the content of this guide.

"Being a care partner can feel incredibly isolating, especially as Parkinson's changes over time," said Heather Butchen, a care partner and MJFF community contributor to Facing Parkinson's Together, "Having a resource like this, one that reflects what you're actually living and reminds you that you're not alone, makes a real difference."

The free, digital guide is available for download at michaeljfox.org/carepartners.

About The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research 

As the world's largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson's research, The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to accelerating a cure for Parkinson's disease and improved therapies for those living with the condition today. The Foundation pursues its goals through an aggressively funded, highly targeted research program coupled with active global engagement of scientists, Parkinson's patients, business leaders, clinical trial participants, donors, and volunteers. In addition to funding $2.5 billion in research to date, the Foundation has fundamentally altered the trajectory of progress toward a cure. Operating at the hub of worldwide Parkinson's research, MJFF forges groundbreaking collaborations, creates robust open-access data sets and biosample libraries with its landmark clinical study (PPMI), increases the flow of participants into Parkinson's disease clinical trials with its online tool (Fox Trial Finder), promotes Parkinson's awareness, and coordinates the grassroots involvement of thousands of Team Fox members around the world.

SOURCE The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research