Attend and participate in stroke education classes to become better aware of how a stroke affects a person. Most hospitals and many nursing homes will offer free classes. The more you know what to expect, the less frustration for both you and your family member.
Attend his or her treatment and rehabilitation sessions and ask questions so you can help him or her do their exercises and treatment at home. Ask the therapist what you can do to help the person recover or gain as much independence as possible.
Encourage the person to practice tasks and increase strengths and endurance and to speed recovery.
Have a lot of patience because the person who is affected is even more frustrated than you are and may become depressed due to the loss of independence.
It may take months or even years to recover depending on how severe the stroke was and how much damage there was to the brain. Both the person and his or her family should be involved in the recovery and rehabilitation process.
Be sure your family member gets occupational and physical therapy. While some people will recover completely from a stroke, about two-thirds will have some type of disability. Even for those who will have a permanent disability, good occupational therapy can insure the individual maintains as much independence as possible. Unfortunately, even today, some people take the attitude, "Oh, well, he has a disability, what do you expect?" or "Well, your grandmother is over sixty-five, you just can't expect her to be able to do a lot of things."
Next, what occupational therapists can do after a stroke