Support for Stroke Survivors and Their Families
Personal Counseling for Stroke Survivors...
Academic and Independent Living Skills
Help on the Job: Vocational Academic Skills and Job Coaching
What
Do We Know About Stroke? As professionals in the fields of
education and psychology, our focus for more than 20 years has been on
helping people with learning, developmental, or cognitive disabilities
to reach their personal and vocational potential, and on helping people
cope with the hardships and frustrations that accompany disabling
conditions of all kinds. We had not given much
thought to how similar the after-effects of stroke are to symptoms of
learning disabilities and head injuries until one of us had one.
While hiking in a southern Utah canyon, Mary Costa (pictured here only
minutes before "the event") had a spontaneous hemorrhagic stroke.
Three miles from the car, it took about five hours to carry Mary to
rescue workers and then another 2 hours to get her to a rural hospital
where it was decided to airlift her to a stroke center in Provo, Utah
where she had surgery to remove the pooled blood and clots in her brain
the following morning. Mary was very lucky that, despite the long
delay in getting her to appropriate treatment after the stroke, she
recovered magnificently from the stroke and surgery; with a lot of
effort and continued struggles that only she is truly aware of, she is
walking and talking and has regained most of her cognitive and physical
functions.
Mary was featured in this article in the Aurora Sentinel in June 2010: http://www.aurorasentinel.com/living/wellness/article_ba06ded8-2dc4-5ba1-aeb4-8b8f97227d5c.html and in October 2010 was nominated as one of KOSI 101.1's Extraordinary Women! http://www.kosi101.com/pages/8209136.php
To say that someone has relearned how to walk, talk and to engage in daily living skills understates the actual process of recovery. Each regained skill and every step toward independence is worthy of celebration as fears that "it might not come back" diminish. Mary's experience is not unique, and there is at least one recent best-selling book that eloquently describes various aspects and types of stroke and stroke recovery. There are many websites devoted to stroke information, stroke symptoms and warning signs. The Denver area is home to the Rocky Mountain Stroke Center and the National Stroke Association. All strokes and all stroke survivors are different, however, and there are as many stories about surviving stroke as there are survivors (about 651,421 per year, in fact). No two people who have had a stroke are exactly alike in their survival stories, personalities, abilities, and skills, and their needs during rehabilitation and after vary widely. When Mary was in the early stages of her hemorrhagic stroke, she started to laugh! You won't see that listed in any stroke warning-sign lists. She had no headache, and no pain at the time of her stroke, which had a very sudden onset. She does not drink alcohol excessively or smoke, has very low blood pressure, and is a jogger.
One person may have difficulty understanding what is said to them while another has difficulty expressing what he or she wants to say, while another has trouble paying attention. We have paid special attention to these after-effects of stroke because they are also true for the people with learning disabilities, head injuries and attention deficits with whom we have worked for the last twenty years or so. The biggest difference between the groups is in the timing of it all: people with learning, attention, and developmental disabilities face an all-of-your-life disability, while people with head injuries and strokes face a for-the-rest-of-your-life disability. To say the least, Mary now has a very unique perspective on head injury, stroke, and learning disabilities.
Before Mary's stroke, Mary, Gary, and the rest of Lifelong's staff had already committed their careers to helping people with brain differences and cognitive struggles achieve their goals. It is, therefore, logical to add a few things to Lifelong's array of services that we can confidently say we have become "experts" about:
Personal Counseling for Stroke Survivors: When people return home after a stroke, they face new emotional challenges and questions they might never have considered. Can I go back to work? Will I be as attractive as I was before (and, why did they have to cut off all my hair?)? What if this happens to me again? Fear of not regaining all the abilities and skills present before the stroke can be overwhelming, and dealing with personality changes can be challenging for everyone involved. Even small tasks can present unexpected frustrations and extreme emotions (did you ever try to operate a can opener with one hand?). Because of the intensity of therapy and focused attention while at the rehabilitation hospital following the stroke or brain surgery, depression and anxiety over the future can easily develop after discharge. Counseling/psychotherapy can reduce or prevent the depression and help to keep the anxiety from getting out of hand.
... and Family Members: Supportive family members are one of the most important components of a person's recovery from stroke, yet hospitals make few efforts to support them and even act as if they do not exist at times. Following Mary's stroke, for example, Dr. Gary Macdonald (her spouse) was variously ignored, asked to leave (he didn't), or merely tolerated as a piece of furniture in the room by hospital staff. A wide range of emotions and questions are faced every day by family members and spouses. Should I have done something differently? Will we ever take a walk on the beach together again? How do I control my anger about it all (Why did this happen to us?)? Will we need to move to a more accessible home? The sense of loss and stress can be overwhelming and the hospitals and specialists offer little support. Counseling can help because it offers an appropriate outlet for otherwise pent-up emotions so that important decisions can be made and the quality of support for the affected loved one can remain high.
