Why "Better Halves"

Getting to know us

Parkinson's Better Halves is a highly specialized online support and educational group.

We feel membership is a privilege and not a right.  

Parkinson's Better Halves (PBH) was created in Jan 2017 by Kelley Roberson, our founder.  Kelley was desperately searching for an online FaceBook group in which she could connect with women whose loves of their lives had also been diagnosed with PD. Kelley quickly realized that as she joined other groups, the needs of the wives whose husbands had been diagnosed with PD were not being met. She and other wives were often faced with disparaging remarks when they opened up in these groups. At times, they were openly verbally abused by group members. What was even sadder was these admins allowed this to go on, and should the woman complain, she was the one banned from the group. Deeply disturbed over this, Kelley opened up a discussion with her life partner, and he quickly stated: "Why not build your own!" For three days, over tears, soul searching, and prayers, and with the encouragement and guidance from a dear friend, Kelley opted to "build it and see if they come"... and they did.

The PBH original group had 300 members within 24 hours! Within 72 hours, there were 500 + members. It quickly became apparent the members were looking for a dedicated support group, not a group that ran amuck. The admins quickly became a council who invested their time in caring and sharing with members. Group dialogs were created on what members wanted and expected from the group and our admin and leaders. Our first significant decision was that we did not want to be a group that concentrated on numbers but on quality. It was voted on and agreed; no PBH group membership would ever exceed 500 active members. The ladies wanted to get to know each other and build friendships. We also opted to be a very specialized group to meet the needs of our members better. We discovered that yes, wives whose husbands had been diagnosed with Parkinson's had some unique needs.   A place was desperately needed where they could comfortably share and talk about them. So we opted to become a specialized group to help those we could more fully understand -  other wives who were caring for husbands with Parkinson's.

Within our first year, we opted to form an organization more so than to be just another FB Group; we became an organization with an online presence. We set the goal of becoming a non-profit that would help make changes in areas of the Parkinson's world where we saw voids.

We are now three groups strong, with approx 1500 members. We closed our doors for a period to make sure our organization was being built on quality and not quantity. We are now reopening our doors to new members through an application process. We are looking to help other women who are making the same journey so we can do it together.  Our organizational caregiver groups on Facebook will continue to be a specialized Facebook group as we continue to grow.  We strive to be someone who "gets it."

                                We are a specialized online organization - We have so much to offer.               990.03