Exercise for Stroke Patient: Information About Therapy for Stroke Patients

Have your or a loved one recently suffered a stroke? Are you looking for information about therapy for stroke patients? Then this article is for you. This article will provide a brief description of a stroke and also discuss post-stroke rehabilitation and therapy for stroke patients. It will also provide information about how stroke patients benefit from the post-stroke therapy.

A stroke occurs when a blood vessel breaks or a blood clot blocks an artery interrupting the blood flow to a certain area of the brain. When this happens brains cells die and brain damage may occur. The loss of speech, movement and memory frequently seen with stroke are caused by the death of these brain cells.

What is Therapy for Stroke Patients?
Rehabilitation or therapy for stroke helps individuals who have survived a stroke relearn life skills that are lost when part of the survivor’s brain is damaged by a stroke. These skills can include leg or arm movements in order to walk or carry out basic steps involved in completing more complex activities. Rehabilitation or therapy for stroke patients also teaches stroke survivors new ways to perform or complete tasks to compensate for any residual disabilities.

Stroke survivors may need to learn how to complete everyday tasks including dressing and bathing using only one hand, or how to effectively communicate when their ability to speak and communicate in other fashions has been compromised. There is a consensus among individuals who specialize in therapy for stroke patients that the most important element in any post-stroke therapy program is well-focused, carefully directed, repetitive practice. This can be likened to the same kind of repetitive practice an individual may use to learn a new skill such as dribbling a basketball or playing the guitar.

Therapy for stroke patients commonly begins in an acute-care hospital after the stroke survivors’ medical condition is stable, commonly within 24 to 48 hours after the stroke. The first steps in therapy for stroke patients involve promoting individual movement in the patient because many survivors are seriously weakened or even paralyzed. Individuals are frequently asked to change positions while lying in a hospital bed as well as engage in active or passive range-of-motion exercises that help strengthen the stroke impaired limbs.

Stroke survivors progress from performing basic tasks such as sitting up and moving from bed to bed or from chair to standing, bearing their own weight and even walking without the assistance of the physical therapist. Therapists and nurses help stroke survivors perform progressively more demanding and complex tasks, such as dressing, using the toilet, bathing or brushing teeth and these individuals who specialize in therapy for stroke patients also encourage survivors to continue using their stroke impaired limbs.

Beginning to regain the ability to complete these basic everyday activities is the first step in therapy for stroke patients and the first stage in the patients’ return to functional independence.

Maintaining the gains – guidelines for community baesd exercise programs for people with stroke – A presentation by Paula Gilmore and Alda Tee from the Ontario Stroke Network/ Ontario Stroke System and by Genevieve Hladysh from the YMCA. This presentation…