Stroke Rehab Facilities: Post-Stroke Rehab: Medical Professionals

Have you or a loved one recently suffered from a stroke? Are you searching for information about post-stroke rehab? Then this article is for you. This article will discuss post-stroke rehab specifically focusing on medical professionals and what kind of post-stroke rehab services are offered by these medical services.

Post-stroke rehab involves a variety of medical professions including physicians, physical therapists, rehabilitation nurses, occupational and recreational therapists and speech-language pathologists.

Physicians
Physicians are primarily responsible for coordinating and managing the long-term care of stroke survivors. This may include recommending post-stroke rehab programs that will best address the patient’s individual needs. Physicians are also responsible for the patient’s general health as well as providing guidance to prevent a second stroke. This includes controlling diabetes or blood pressure and eliminating other health risks such as excessive weight, cigarette smoking, high alcohol consumption and a high-cholesterol diet.

Rehabilitation Nurses
Rehabilitation nurses help patients relearn how to carry out basic activities of everyday living. They also educate these individuals and their caregivers about routine health care, such as how to care for skin, how to follow a medication schedule, how to manage transfers from a wheelchair to a bed as well as special needs for patients with diabetes. Post-rehab nurses also work with patients to reduce the aforementioned risk factors that may lead to a second stroke.

Post-Rehab nurses are also closely involved in helping patients manage personal care issues, such as controlling incontinence and bathing. Most survivors eventually regain the ability to maintain continence, often due to the strategies learned during stroke rehab.

Physical Therapists
Physical therapists are trained to treat individuals with disabilities related to sensory and motor impairments. These therapists are trained in aspects of physiology and anatomy related to normal function, specifically focusing on movement. They assess the stroke patient’s endurance, strength, gait abnormalities, sensory deficits and range of motion to design individualized stroke rehab programs aimed at regaining control over sensory and motor functions.

Physical therapists help stroke survivors regain the use of impaired limbs, establish ongoing exercise programs to help patients retain their newly developed skills.

Occupational Therapists
Similar to physical therapists’ post-stroke rehab, occupational therapists are commonly concerned with improving sensory and motor abilities. They help stroke patients relearn skills needed for performing activities/occupations such as grooming, housecleaning and preparing meals. Occupational therapists can teach some patients how to drive and provide on-road training. They commonly teach individuals to divide a complex activity into basic components, practice each component and then perform the whole sequence of actions. This strategy can help improve coordination and may help individuals with apraxia relearn to carry out planned actions. Occupational therapists also teach compensatory strategies that help reduce the effect of remaining deficits.

Speech-Language Pathologists
Speech-language pathologists help stroke patients with aphasia relearn to use language or develop an alternate means of communication. They also help stroke survivors improve their ability to swallow, and they work with survivors to develop social and problem solving skills needed for the patient to cope with the after affects of their stroke.

There are numerous medical professions that specialize in post-stroke rehab. In many cases, these professionals working together as a team, can provide the best results. If you or a loved one has recently suffered a stroke, contact your local physician for treatment and information about what post-stroke rehab is best for you.

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