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Rehabilitation After Stroke Rehabilitation

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Strokes are a prevalent occurrence. Every year, nearly 800,000 people have a stroke (“The Internet Stroke Center,” n.d.). Its ramifications can be disastrous ranging from impairment, disability, to even death. Rehabilitation after suffering from a stroke is necessary to have a successful recovery. The current protocol for stroke rehabilitation begins during the initial hospital admittance. The therapy is then transferred to an inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation center. This decision is made considering the severity of the stroke and the patient’s accessibility to a clinic. Stroke rehabilitation taking place in the home, instead of an inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation center, would be an alternative for patients to consider. An important …show more content…

The initiation of the therapy can vary in how quickly it begins for each individual. For some patients it begins within two days post stroke and continues after being discharged. Since there is such a wide range of the severity of strokes, rehabilitation options can be different from client to client. For some individuals, rehabilitation can take place in an inpatient therapy at a hospital, for others they may return home and attend outpatient therapy at a clinic. There are other options including subacute care units and long term care facilities that also provide important therapy “Rehabilitation Therapy after a Stroke,” 2015). Regardless of the environment, these therapies aim to achieve the same goal of improving the function and independence of the stroke …show more content…

One of those important players is an occupational therapist. Occupational therapists often look at the individual holistically. They understand the importance of how emotional well-being, healthy life habits, and social connections play in recovery for patients who have suffered a stroke, as well as addressing the continuous physical rehabilitation. Occupational therapists also focus and engage stroke survivors, as well as their families, to lead independent healthy lives and emphasize the importance of human connections. Occupational therapists do this by helping the patients and their families develop coping strategies to deal with loss, promoting psychosocial health, promoting healthy living strategies, as well as providing education for the clients to minimize any potential for a stroke relapse. Most importantly, occupational therapists use their knowledge in activity analysis and adaptive methods to help the individual complete necessary and meaningful life occupations, promoting their independence (“The Role of Occupational Therapy in Stroke Rehabilitation,” n.d.). Completing this therapy in the patient’s home can decrease medical expenditures as well as give a more realistic context and environment for patient therapy to be successful and

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