Strokes are often devastating. Yet, with the proper therapy, a stroke victim can return to a fulfilling life.
It takes a team effort. Stroke rehabilitation therapists help survivors regain lost functions and adapt to lingering deficits. Results stem from the rehabilitation team’s skill, the patient’s willingness to work and the caregivers’ commitment.
Typically, a stroke survivor comes to rehabilitation from an acute care hospital and “gets rehab fairly quickly—usually in about a week or so—after they’re medically stable,” said Dr. Melissa Banta, a physical therapist who leads the inpatient therapy team at Sheltering Arms Physical Rehabilitation Centers, which has the highest level of certification in stroke rehabilitation offered by The Joint Commission. Nonprofit Sheltering Arms has been a Richmond institution since 1889.
‘THE GOAL, ALWAYS, IS TO RETURN THE PATIENT HOME’
Patients get post-hospitalization intensive day therapy typically two or three times a week. Every aspect of life is tackled in detail — each physical difficulty; speaking, swallowing, thinking problems; and activities needed for daily life such as dressing, bathing, eating and toileting.
“The goal, always, is to return the person home,” Banta said. Most patients and caregivers share that goal.
Patients have to learn new strategies and techniques to recover deficits caused by stroke damage. “The biggest thing is motivation,” Banta added. “They need to want to be there, to want therapy and to believe that they can get better and recover.”
HOME HELP IS KEY
Recovery typically requires home help. “We encourage the family to come to the therapy sessions to see how the person is doing,” she continued. “That helps them get an idea how much help they’ll need when they get home.
“And they get family training while they’re at the therapy sessions. Sometimes that involves lifting or transferring (moving from one place to another); sometimes it involves just being there and supervising with decision making and safety.”
Intensive therapy, where the most progress is made, continues until stroke survivors reach their maximum level of functioning.
Then the goal becomes keeping people from sliding backward, which can happen to stroke survivors, just like the rest of us, if we don’t build structure, exercise and socialization into our daily lives.
That’s the focus of recreational therapists such as Alison Clarke, Sheltering Arms’ director of community recreation services.
Keeping active and involved through Sheltering Arms’ community fitness programs promotes both health and prevention, she said.
For stroke survivors, Sheltering Arms operates Club Rec, at The Boulevard and Broad Street, where 80 percent of the members have had strokes. Members participate in social and recreational activities and have access to a heated swimming pool and fitness programs.
FEELING THEY’RE NOT ALONE
The day program provides caregivers time for their own jobs and leisure. Social events and support groups also give caregivers and stroke survivors opportunities to meet other caregivers so they “become support for each other and they feel that they’re not alone,” Clarke said.
Sheltering Arms has 10 locations, including two fitness centers, where membership is also open to the public. Patients can get adaptive instruction in sports such as golf and bowling and even sign up for accessible cruises in which survivors and caregivers experience new adventures and activities, both separately and together.
There are community education programs, including May 13 health screenings and stroke education at the Science Museum of Virginia, co-sponsored by Bon Secours Health System, plus the Sharegiver Program (Tuesdays, April 20–May 25) for caregivers and stroke survivors, co-sponsored by the American Heart Association. A different topic will be discussed at each meeting. Call (804) 764-5275 for information.
Timeout and support for caregivers are essential, Clarke said. “Being a stroke caregiver can be challenging, especially if the relative needs constant supervision and assistance with everyday activities.”
There’s a hopeful sentence at www.shelteringarms.com: “It helps to remember that stroke survivors usually have at least some spontaneous recovery or natural healing and often recover further with rehabilitation.”
Betty Booker is a retired Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist and reporter.
Stroke Awareness Month
May is National Stroke Awareness Month. For more, visit www.stroke.org.
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