dos
How the Family Should Help the Stroke Victim
- Make the effort to learn about stroke and aphasia to better understand what the victim is experiencing.
- Accept the patient’s limitations and remain cognizant of what the patient can no longer do.
- Ensure that the patient is always under a neurologist's or a physician's care. If you cannot locate one, go to the closest District Hospital, which is managed by doctors who can treat the patient or refer you to a specialist. There may also be rehabilitation facilities available for the patient’s use at the hospital.
- Seek medical, physical, occupational, and speech treatment as soon as possible after the stroke.
- Promote every opportunity for the patient to communicate. Encourage the patient to count, use numbers, recite days, or articulate greetings like ‘namastey’ or ‘jai hind’ or ‘baithiye’. These are automatic responses and are usually easier for the patients to recall and articulate.
- Praise the patient’s successful achievements regardless of how small they are.
- If medically permitted, keep the patient occupied with family and social activities.
- Make efforts to keep the patient on a routine. This provides security and promotes the patient’s confidence in his/her ability to function.
- Ensure that the patient receives frequent rest. Stroke patients generally perform better with language and speech activities after rest.
- Remember that the patient is an adult and treat him/her as a mature individual and indispensable family member. The patient should be a part of all important decisions just as he/she was before the stroke.
- Be sensitive to the patient's needs. Stroke patients may not like to see friends or relatives if they have not adjusted to their impaired communicative ability. Honor their desires and introduce them to social interactions gradually.
- The patient may often use profanity. This in an automatic response and the patient may not have control over it. Accept this behavior without showing any anger or amusement.
- If the patient begins to cry for no apparent reason, ignore this behavior and change the task.