Here are a 5 tips to help you live well at home after your stroke:

Most people are able to return home after their stroke, and resume many of the activities they were involved with pre-stroke. However, you might find that your functioning may have changed in some ways – either physically or mentally, or both. This means that you may need to adapt how you do things, or the home environment around you.

1. Engage Qualified Assistance

Recovery post-stroke doesn’t stop when you leave hospital. It continues for many months and even years after your stroke. It is important that you continue with stroke rehab to regain as much of your previous function as possible. As part of our multi-discplinary assessment we can assist you to identlfy which therpaists you ay need support from including;

• Physiotherapist: to work on skills like walking, ability to climb stairs, balance, strength, and ability to get on/off chairs.Occupational Therapist: to work on your ability to carry out day-to-day living tasks, use of your arms/hands, your cognition ( thinking skills), help with your fatigue management, and assess your home to help you have the best independence and access to what is important to you.Exercise Physiologist: to help re-build your fitness, endurance, strength and balance to help you get back to the activities you want to do.Speech Therapist: to assist with your speech and communication skills, as well as swallowing and eating.Psychologist: to assist with adjustment to your new situation, or to assist with any cognitive or emotional changes you may have experienced

We find ARC clients who work with a multidisciplinary therapy team more likely to make better gains in their rehabilitation.

2. Look At Your Home

Your home may need some changes to make it safer and more accessible for you after your stroke. Your ARC Occupational Therapist is the best person to come to your home and make recommendations for the best solutions for you. Some changes which might help in your home include:

• Removing floor rugs to reduce chance of tripping.Providing something to sit on in the shower eg. shower chair may be helpful.Installing grabrails in your bathroom or on your stairs.Moving furniture if needed to create enough access space to get a walker or wheelchair in.Adjusting lighting in the house to assist with visibility.Keeping telephone / pendant alarm within reach.Wearing non-slip shoes around the home to prevent slips and falls.Moving or reorganizing frequently used items in the kitchen and bedroom so they are within reach.

3. Seek Support Services

You might find that you need an extra helping hand if you are finding things a bit harder than before. Consider applying for access to the NDIS if you are under 65, or apply to My Aged Care if you are over 65. Both government-funded schemes offer a wide range of services and supports to help you.

4. The Invisible Issue

People are usually very aware of their physical changes, but problems with cognition, or “thinking skills” are also very common after stroke. Sometimes they may not become apparent until you are at home and needing to do more for yourself. Common areas that people have difficulty with are:

• ConcentrationMemoryProblems with planning and problem-solving (executive function)Problems noticing things on one side (visuo-spatial neglect)Difficulty making out objects or finding your way around (visual perception)Confusion

As an Occupational Therapist we also assess your cognition, to find out which areas are affected and work with you to develop a tailored program. This might focus on “remediation” (improving those skills), “compensation” (doing things differently to work around the issue), or recommend external strategies or equipment to assist, such as using reminder systems, or a dosette box for medication.

5. Embrace Change

Most people do find that they are living with some degree of changed function after their stroke. This period can be a test of your ability to adapt and do things differently. This might mean using your other hand to write. Or it might mean taking rest breaks throughout the day to manage fatigue. Or it might mean sitting down to shower. Being flexible and adaptable will help you on your journey. It doesn’t mean that you will always have to do things that way, but it might be the safest / easiest / quickest way for now.

We have treated many stroke survivors who have gone on to acheive extraordinary feats in their daily lives. Read about our recent ARC Gold Star winner David here.

What can we do to help?

As neurological therapists we will always advocate for working towards improved independence within the context of what is reasonable, and are here to support our clients in doing so and ultimately finding their ‘new normal’. It is in our ARC ‘DNA’ to promote function and challenge your limits alongside providing the best care! However, what we also recognise is that improved function and life participation after a stroke also often involves accepting help. This may be in the form of equipment, to give more independence, or in the form of physical help to assist with tasks and accessing places. Accepting help can initially be an understandable challenge for many and so having a therapy support team around you to guide in helping to make these decisions is invaluable.

If you or a loved one would like to discuss how you might need support in living well after a stroke please reach out to us and we will happily talk you through what this could look like for you.