Dr. Sarah Donkers: Keeping Brains On During a Pandemic Lockdown

Sarah Donkers is a physiotherapist and specialist in neurology who had to rethink everything when the Covid-19 lockdown slammed doors shut this spring. Donkers couldn't stop thinking about her patients, and the care they were now missing. As she tells host Jen Quesnel, her team went on to design online movement and expert masterclasses for more than 800 Saskatchewan people with MS, with spinal cord injuries, and with Parkinson's disease. "It was two-way learning," Donkers said, as she documented the effect of the advice and emotional connections her patients made with each other during the neurological and physical rehabiliation program. After ten weeks, most patients urged her team to continue the twice-weekly sessions. "It was really rewarding."