About half of the stroke victims were found to be mildly impaired, a third were moderately impaired, and the rest were severely impaired. Some had far more symptoms of depression than others, but regardless of their levels of disability or depression, patients who had undergone some form of rehab reported a significantly higher quality of life than those who did not. Rehabilitation therapy involves learning new skills and adapting to disability, with the goal of restoring as much function as possible. Rehab can be done in a hospital or on an outpatient basis and often involves three different types of therapy. Physical therapy aims to improve the patients' mobility through exercise and with devices such as walkers or canes.
Occupational therapy helps patients relearn to perform daily activities such as bathing or dressing.
And speech therapy retrains stroke survivors to say what they're thinking. Stroke victims' family members can aid in the recovery process by working to set rehabilitation goals along with the patient, his or her doctor, nurses and the rest of the rehab team. The rehab team can also teach family members how to assist stroke victims once they get home. For example, Strasser says, family members should be trained to help the patient manage their bladder catheters. He says this is particularly important for women who have had strokes, since many more female than male stroke victims end up being admitted to nursing homes because of difficulty with the catheters.