Usually, when people suffer from stroke, they are taken through a comprehensive process of recovery. The process is a complicated and detailed one and is intended to help patient’s recovery sensory mishaps that resulted from the strokes. Additionally, the process helps them to recovery aspects such as memory and general genitive performance. According to research, the process needs to be followed religiously through continuous practice. When this process is interrupted in any way, then the victims of stroke might be hindered from full recovery. What many families and friends of the victims often fail to recognize is that life after stroke and the rehabilitation is a continuous recovery process? Until the victims fully recover and adopt a strong nervous system, they need a lot of care, practice and attention. The issues that affect the recovery of stroke victims emanate from a number of things. The factors that contribute to these issues crop up from the care received, the medicine given, support of family and friends and the diet the patients take during recovery. In addition, aspects of exercise are where the issues originate. The exercise, in this case, includes both the physical and intellectual exercise. Ideally, people need to understand that the rehabilitation process should contain an overall recovery pattern.
One of the issues that affect stroke rehabilitation is the attitude of the victim towards the recovery process. Most people are devastated after they suffer from a stroke. The devastation originates from their lack of the ability to perform tasks that they could previously do. The stroke greatly hinders movement, the ability to think, and results in emotional imbalance. Most of them would, therefore, become irritable and make the recovery process difficult (Stein,Silver & Frates, 2006). They are pitiful of their state and lose hope in the process. The patient, too, has an imperative role to play in the recovery process. They are supposed to show a positive effort that will make it easier to recover. In extreme cases, some even refuse to undergo therapy, and hibernate into a trapped shell of emotional distress. When they do this, the health practitioner is placed at a difficult position while affording them care. It is, therefore, important for the patients to realize that there is hope to recover their lives along with their health. The stroke also affects them in terms of careers, friendships and family. Some patients feel that they no longer have the respect from their families, and find that difficult to process. Furthermore, they are hindered from most previous activities and adopt a low profile social life. It is true that the process of stroke rehabilitation is mainly centered on the physical recovery aspects. However, psychologists emphasize on emotional treatment as well. Research in the care afforded in healthcare has shed light on the effect of Patient Corporation and positive attitude towards treatment. The research involved the most chronic diseases in the world today. Patients who showed a positive and resilient attitude towards the recovery process increased their chances of recovery by nearly 20%. Some of them recovered completely. Therefore, doctors need to emphasize on the emotional recovery part. They need to discourage pitiful visits from family and friends because they contribute to the irritableness most stroke victims manifest. In addition, they should understand that there is hope for a full recovery because stroke is curable. In no time, with the proper attitude, they can lead their normal lives.
When an individual suffers a stroke, they tend to develop a number of eating problems. The eating disorders can greatly interfere with the process of rehabilitation. The effects can cause physical and emotional strains. In addition, the individual’s medicinal treatment will suffer from lack of proper diet. In most cases, individuals who suffer from stroke are subjected to an eating roster that ensures that they get the proper ingredients necessary for recovery. Some patients develop a complete loss of appetite. The loss might be fuelled by the constant medication they are given or result from feelings of depression (National Stroke Association, 2012). Either way, they need to eat to get strong and battle with the body parts that are hindered from movement. The rehabilitation consists of bodily exercises and physiotherapy. The two are needed to exercise the parts of the bodies that were paralyzed. Specific diet is afforded to the patients because of the strength needed in the healing process of these therapies. Therefore, the eating disorders patients develop greatly hinder stroke rehabilitation. In addition, some of the food they are made to eating is solely centered on health and recovery. Many find the foods different from what they were used to at home, and, therefore, refuse to eat. Such instances could lead to long periods in rehabilitation. The stroke patients that follow a strict healthy eating regime often recover faster than those who stagnate. Besides, they tend to develop further complication because their immune system becomes weak. So, instead of recovering, bad eating habits could result from post-stroke complications that further hinder the process of rehabilitation.
A common eating disorder that has been experienced by many stroke victims is called dysphagia. The problem is physical oriented. Lack results it of the individuals chewing ability. The ability may be hindered because of movement problems in the mouth region. The condition, therefore, makes eating difficult and increases an individual’s chances of choking when they eat. In addition, problems might emanate from a sense of smell, making eating a long tiresome task. In such cases, even feeding from a caregiver cannot help. Therefore, it is important when doctors detect and cure the eating disorders and conditions that could pose as a stumbling block to the recovery of the patient. There are some instances where eating conditions are not detectable. In such cases, patients completely refuse to eat. They could feel a pain, have too much saliva in their mouth or are subjected to drugs that make them lose their appetite. It is, therefore, important for practitioners to minimize the number of eating disorders experienced by patients who have suffered a stroke.
In addition, the many problems that occur after strokes make the process of recovery hard. Most of the time, there are a number of issues that creep up after a patient has recovered. As a result, they have to be taken through a second process of recovery. Sometimes, the side effects result in a prolonged period in the rehabilitation center that requires a lot of care (National Stroke Foundation, 2013). The recovery process, in addition, could take a long time because of the accompanying health concerns after a stroke. For instance, a patient may develop urinary complications, blood related issues, and may be in constant pain after a while. Such discomforts are especially hard on the patients. They tend to lose patience and become weak, which is a hindrance to the recovery. Even though, there are a number of control measures that are instigated to help in the full recovery process, the conditions that emanate from strokes can be unpredictable. They can happen a long time after the patient has been cleared. The challenge of complete cure, therefore, is a hindrance to recovery. In addition, some individuals who have suffered a stroke are prone to the emergence of a subsequent stroke. Research had shown that the chances of the re-occurrence of a stroke are increased when an individual lacks proper care or had too many subsequent conditions (Stein, Silver & Frates, 2006). Therefore, most individuals who have suffered a stroke are under threat of suffering another one. The challenge of ensuring the recovery of a second stroke is hard to handle. The reason is that the first time is usually coupled with the common problems. A second stroke, on the other hand, is utterly difficult to manage. It is coupled with more severe conditions and can easily lead to death in most cases. Therefore, such issues make the recovery process that stroke rehabilitation endeavors in difficult to handle. In extreme cases, patient will succumb to the after effects of strokes. To inhibit such an occurrence, medics need to ensure all possible scenarios are covered in the rehabilitation process. They can do so by increasing the risk management factors through a thorough process of evaluation of a patient’s case. Practitioners need to understand that the cases of stroke are different, and every patient should be treated differently. Because of increased cases, some hospitals place all the patients in one area and take care of them as a whole.
The issue of healthcare costs is one that greatly affects the process of stroke rehabilitation. The process requires a lot of care for the patients. The patients are usually in need of continuous attention, special diet and expensive medication. Given that the process takes long; such costs are always a challenge. The issue of cost is one that affects both the healthcare and the families. There is some expenditure that is not stipulated as being covered by the insurance. Families often opt for home care that may not be the best for the fragile situation. The patients often need professional care for full recovery. Eventually, even the hospitals get caught up in the issue of cost. The type of care they give might, therefore, not be quality health. When they are left in the discretions of care of their families, the attention shifts from the complete care they received in hospitals. The family members also have other agendas to attend to. As a result, their care will be limited (Boorstein, 2010). The individuals who have been affected by stroke often need undivided attention. There are cases where unsupervised individuals succumbed to alcohol drinking as a means of coping with the resulting depression. Such instances can happen at home, where the patient is not supervised. Majority of families opt for home care giving to reduce the costs of stroke rehabilitation. They do not give the same kind of undivided attention that the caregivers offer in healthcare. Without complete supervision, the patients the recovery process will not be effective. In addition, when the patients are discharged after completing the stroke rehabilitation process, they may need to go to the hospital for frequent checkups to ensure their full recovery. Such checkups prevent the recurring of the issue. However, because of the issue of costs, most of the families will opt for not taking them as frequently as they are supposed to. The reason is that they could assume that the individuals have been completely healed. They may not understand that the issues could emanate at any time after the assumed recovery. The patients are, in turn, exposed to the many dangers of the side effects the condition brings forth. Frequent visits to the hospitals, which are hindered by costs, tend to affect the number of times they visit a health practitioner. Furthermore, because of the issues of costs, some hospitals may not have all the equipment that can facilitate the care they need to give the patients. Aspects such as physiotherapy are the most affected by the issue of costs. They may not be in a position to provide the most modern equipment for the therapy of the fragile cases of strokes.
Moreover, the nature of the stroke makes it difficult for practitioners to offer proper care. The reason is that strokes affect cognitive abilities, which make it hard for communication on the progress of the patient. The care and examination of the process are limited to observation, which may not be entirely effective. Communication is essential in the care giving act. It ensures an individual is properly understood. In addition, it establishes a rapport being the caregiver and the patient and makes it easier to follow up on the progress. When people suffer strokes, the resulting effect makes them zombie-like. Their emotions, speech and body movement is hindered. Getting such a person to full recovery is not easy even for experts (Bergquist & McLean, 1994). It takes time and a sequence of medical treatment. The reason is that the treatment of normal patients helps when they can share on their progress as well. They can talk to the doctors and tell them how they feel or notify them of any changes. The results of stroke make such dialogue impossible. The problem with using an observation only approach in the treatment is that one may miss an important change in the patient. In the case of strokes, there are machines that detect any changes. However, when patients note anything wrong within their bodies, they should be able to communicate about the change to enable practitioners to handle it in proper time. When they wait for observations and indications from machines, a chance to reverse or advance the changes might elapse. The reverse will be based on whether or not the change is positive. In addition, using observation is limited. The patients sometimes need to communicate about how their bodies feel for a health practitioner or professional caregiver to note any alarming signs. Therefore, the effect on the cognitive abilities of individuals who have suffered strokes makes the recovery process difficult. Sometimes, the patients too need to communicate on issues they feel affect them. They cannot do this, especially in cases where the condition is severe.
Evidently, the package’s learning comes with numerous objectives. They denote the features that are taken into consideration in the process of offering and disseminating knowledge to the learners. The objectives, importantly denotes the particular learning programs that are to be followed for the learning to be termed as comprehensive and effective. Additional objectives that would be derived from the learning package would include but not limited to the extent at which the learning process would make the learning engaged with an aim of improving their dynamic eavesdropping dexterity. In addition, the learners stand a chance of gaining and improving on certain courses as well as aspects on their general lectures. Without a doubt, the package enables the objectives of the learning process to be evaluated since by improving the status of the learners, it would be termed as effective and worth for the learners.
Even though all these issues hinder or render the process of stroke rehabilitation difficult, adequate care still needs to be provided. The rehabilitation process, if coupled with psychological therapy should be able to give the individuals who suffer from strokes the needed tools for recovery. In addition, positive reinforcement and support from family and friends would ensure that the patients fully recover.
References
Bergquist, W. H., & McLean, R. (1994). Stroke Survivors Millions of Americans are recovering from strokes. Hear the stories and challenges of survivors and caregivers.. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Boorstein, S. (2010). Different strokes an intimate memoir for stroke survivors, families, and caregivers. New York: Skyhorse Pub.
National Stroke Foundation A stroke week. (2013, March 20). National Stroke Foundation » stroke week. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from http://www.strokefoundation.com.au/blog/?cat=9
Stein, J., Silver, J. K., & Frates, E. P. (2006). Life after stroke: the guide to recovering your health and preventing another stroke. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Voter Choice is NOW OPEN! (2012, February 29). National Stroke Association. Retrieved October 18, 2014, from http://www.stroke.org/site/PageServer
