Hi Judy,
My Mom has PD and I too am the caretaker, (for both her and my Dad, he has other health issues) Recently, Mom and I attended a seminar given by John Argue. It was amazing and very informative. One of the things he touched on was "Freezing" He taught several different ways to prevent it as well as how to fall so as to avoid injury. One thing he suggested was to count steps, he picked a gentleman out who deals with freezing all the time and first had him try to walk across the room, it was difficult for him, next John asked him to estimate how many steps he thought it would take him to walk to a different part of the room, then had him count his steps out loud while walking over to the spot he had chosen. I was amazed when the man not only walked to the spot, but kept on going while counting!!!
John said the reason it worked was because instead of concentrating on walking and worrying about freezing, the gentleman was now giving his brain a different task so he was thinking about counting instead of walking, the walking just came naturally! I dont know if we are allowed to post information on other websites etc, but if you would like more info. please feel free to pm or email me. Good Luck to you and your Mom.
Liss