Did You Know . . .
Due to neuroplastic changes, rehab services have the greatest impact in the first year after a stroke event.
Home rehabilitation can enhance recovery after stroke, especially when it’s hard to travel outside the home.
Imagine the joy of re-discovering old skills after a stroke. Our home rehabilitation program provides a comprehensive range of psychosocial supports, supervised exercise, nutrition, and care coaching to support recovery at home.
Adam Henley, our Registered Nurse Therapist, also brings additional training in neuro-cognitive rehabilitation, mental health therapy, and restorative care to home care visits.
Is home rehabilitation the best fit?
We excel in cardiovascular and cognitive rehabilitation as well as care coaching after major stroke events, with a priority focus on providing home care 3 to 9 months after a stroke.
However, if you can travel outside the home and complete daily activities on your own, outpatient services may be a better fit.
A typical timeline for stroke recovery, highlighting our priority focus on restoring home functioning in the 3-9 month period after a stroke.
Image adapted from: Berhardt et al. (2017)
Alternatives to stroke-specialized home care:
| Stroke Outpatient Rehabilitation Team | Located at Red Deer Regional Hospital, this multi-disciplinary team provides comprehensive stroke rehabilitation services. |
| Halvar Jonson Centre for Brain Injury | A long-term, inpatient rehabilitation program located at the Centennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury in Ponoka. |
| Restorative Care Programs | Various short-term, restorative care programs can be accessed through the Rehabilitation and Restorative Care Intake team. |
| Community Physiotherapy | A directory of stroke-specialized PT’s is maintained by the Alberta Association of Physiotherapy. |
| Speech Therapy | A directory of private practice SLP’s is maintained by the Alberta Speech-Language Association of Private Practitioners (ASAPP). |
How do other people experience stroke services in Alberta?
Your experience matters. Did you know you can read stories shared by patients across Alberta, discussing what’s working well and where improvements are needed?
You can help too! Patients and caregivers can share stroke rehab stories anonymously via Care Opinion at careopinion.ca
Beyond the Basics: Addressing Post-Stroke Functional Syndromes
Major stroke events often produce post-stroke functional syndromes. However, basic homemaking and companionship services often overlook the underlying causes of functional disability at home.
Here’s some clinical examples of how stroke-specialized home care can tackle the underlying cause of post-stroke disability:
“I keep walking into things.”
A retired oilfield mechanic experiences left-sided muscle weakness and reduced coordination after a right MCA ischemic stroke.
Visual neglect can occur when one side of the body is underutilized, narrowing a person’s field of view and increasing their risk of falls. Matched interventions (like visual scanning exercises) encourage patients to broaden their awareness. Within 2 to 4 weeks, most patients report improved visuomotor function and coordination.
“I want to eat normally.”
An award-winning chef tries to eat home-cooked meals after a hemorrhagic stroke but continues to report severe coughing after eating.
Swallowing issues (a.k.a., dysphagia) affect the vast majority of patients in the first month after a stroke. Food is an important source of life enjoyment, and it’s common to see patients rush their return to normal eating. Without professional supervision and coaching, choking and hospital readmission (due to aspiration pneumonia) is likely occur at home. We work with patients to ensure they can safely rediscover the joy of eating at home.
“What’s going on?”
A retired teacher is confused and disoriented after discharge from the emergency department with a lacunar stroke.
Acute confusion (a.k.a., delirium) can be caused by sudden changes in environment, certain medications, disease processes, and even pain. It is important to screen and assess for delirium as it is often traced back to one or more highly-treatable factors. However, lacunar strokes are also a common cause of vascular dementia. In either case, we would briefly screen for both conditions and ensure appropriate follow-up care is immediately arranged.
“There’s no point.”
A professional athlete gave up on the goal of walking again, six months after a left MCA stroke. They also stopped answering calls from family, who live outside of Red Deer.
Symptom distress and depression often occur together, when symptoms stack on top of each other to cause distress. Additionally, left MCA strokes are commonly associated with speech impairments, which can make talking on the phone difficult. All of these symptoms would benefit from matched interventions.
For many patients, home stroke rehab provides a lifeline to a broad-range of stroke recovery services, including:
- Neurocognitive rehabilitation to address underlying brain health issues.
- Supervised home exercises to facilitate cardiovascular health.
- Nutrition support and medication management to improve health-related quality of life.
- Care coaching to improve physical and mental wellness at home.
If you think you are having a stroke, please immediately call 9-1-1.
Summary for Health Professionals
| Our home stroke rehabilitation program . . . |
|---|
| Provides supplementary home care for Red Deer residents after major stroke events. |
| Supports capacity to complete daily tasks (BADL’s). |
| Helps manage various neuro-psychiatric and physical symptoms after stroke. |
| Helps reduce frailty and the cognitive changes after stroke. |
| Coordinates access to rehabilitation and home care supports. |
This home care program supports rehabilitation after stroke in Red Deer, Alberta. We focus primarily on improving functional, cognitive and cardiovascular outcomes using a capacity coaching approach.
In collaboration with basic home care services . . .
- We help patients recover from stroke at home.
- We work closely with other health professionals to mobilize the best possible team for stroke recovery.
We usually seek coverage for supplementary nursing care via private health insurance plans. Our clinical team also collaborates with primary care and specialist teams to facilitate open communication and continuity of care.
What we don’t do
We do not provide urgent care. If your patient is experiencing any sudden or unexpected neurological change, please do not refer them to this program.
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) should be immediately activated for any new onset or worsening neurological concerns.
Have questions?
Feel free to call us to talk about how to continue living independently after a stroke. We can likely share some great options for home stroke rehabilitation in Red Deer!
Other options for care in Alberta
In many cases, publicly-funded services may be the best fit for daily care needs. Other resources you may find helpful include:
Rehabilitation Advice Line (1-833-379-0563) provides advice and linkages to rehab services.
Health Link Alberta (811) offers navigation, advice and referral to health services.
* ConsortiaCare.ca provides links to these external providers to help Red Deer residents self-refer to the best possible services for their health condition.