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If your loved one experiences a stroke, the care they receive immediately afterward will influence their recovery. Acute rehabilitation starts as soon as doctors allow, and can improve your loved one’s quality of life. Here’s more information about how this treatment helps stroke patients.

How Can a Stroke Affect Your Loved One?

A stroke can cause various symptoms that differ between patients. Weakness or paralysis can occur on one or both sides of the body, as can pain caused by muscle spasms. Loss of balance and difficulty swallowing are common side effects.

Difficulty communicating may also result from inhibited muscle function and control. For example, the patient may experience lowered vocabulary and comprehension.

Behavioral and cognitive changes are possible, too. Someone who had a stroke in the brain’s left hemisphere may be more cautious, calm, and slow-moving than before. Those who are impacted on the brain’s right side may become impulsive, take uncharacteristic risks, and be more curious. Mood swings, vision changes, fatigue, insomnia, and incontinence can also occur. Additionally, a stroke may impair memory, concentration, perception.

How Does Acute Rehabilitation Help?

acute rehabilitationAcute rehabilitation provides an intensive, multifaceted approach to address multiple or severe symptoms. It combines several types of therapy—such as speech, physical, occupational, and respiratory therapies— to address different complications.

For example, if your loved one has communication challenges, a speech therapist will help rebuild their vocabulary, enhance pronunciation, and build language comprehension. They can also help with swallowing difficulty.

Physical and occupational therapists restore the patient’s ability to perform daily activities by improving balance, strengthening muscles, and honing control and coordination. Recreational therapists guide patients through fun and engaging activities to practice social and functional skills. A respiratory therapist will help improve lung function and strength

For the first few weeks after the stroke, acute rehabilitation typically involves at least three-hour sessions of one-on-one or group treatment for five days a week. Treatments are tailored to each patient’s needs, ending when the patient can transition to a rehab facility or home health care program.

 

If your loved one needs acute rehabilitation, Lifetime Care in Rochester, NY, will provide compassionate care. Serving the Finger Lakes region from five locations, they’re a charitable organization that’s provided rehabilitative and home health care since 1960. Their rehabilitation programs are comprehensive and their home aides assist with tasks like bathing, dressing, and eating. Learn more about their rehab services online, or call (585) 214-1000 to get started.

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