Required reading for Stroke Survivors.and Therapists

Merging the "spirit" of successful stroke survivors with stroke research, Dr. Peter Levine's "Stronger After Stroke: Your Roadmap to Recovery" offers fresh and innovative ideas on stroke rehabilitation.

This inspirational volume is written specifically for stroke survivors and their caregivers. It presents an upbeat, empowering and hopeful message that urges stroke survivors not to accept the status quo of stroke rehabilitation but to expect more and be actively invested in achieving optimal outcomes. Stroke survivors are compared to high performance athletes and musicians (as opposed to individuals at a disadvantage for achievement) insomuch as recovery is arduous and difficult work. Caregivers are charged with the task of facilitating this important work.

Through effort, as supported by research, the brain can be rewired, facilitating more optimal recovery. The concept of "3 hours of therapy a day" is challenged as research supports that stroke recovery should be viewed as a full-time job. Further, the rehab plateau should not be viewed solely as the time to discharge therapies but as a time to reevaluate and reinvigorate efforts toward recovery. Sadly, though, within our system, this is when therapies are terminated. It is also when our clients need us most!

To address these needs (the empowering part!), rehabilitation techniques are explained so that the work of therapy can go on after discharge in the client's home environment. Perhaps not in the optimal manner, depending upon the survivor's support system, but in a safe and challenging way. For example, adapting a cardio workout to be done while seated.

I thoroughly enjoyed Roadmap to Recovery. It presents a positive, empowering message that will resonate with many rehabilitation professionals and, by imparting these concepts to our clients, will allow us to teach them more practical tools to help themselves long after their therapy discharge. I found the content to be comprehensive (addressing not just rehab issues but general health and well-being), pragmatic (offering ideas on how to carry through therapy goals upon discharge), and hopeful. I greatly appreciate how Dr. Levine encourages stroke survivors to work diligently for their recovery and continue to strive for more. As we have seen, a stroke can be devastating, but offering such a powerful and positive message can enhance our client's recovery efforts.

Not only do I believe this tome should be required reading for stroke survivors, I think it should be required reading for all OTs and rehabilitation professionals. Further, I would love to see additional volumes written from this perspective for other rehabilitation diagnoses. These are the types of positive, proactive, and pragmatic textbooks we should learn from to best enable and empower our clients.

This book can be obtained from Demos Medical Publishing, 386 Park Avenue South, Suite 301, New York, NY, 10016, 800-532-8663, www.demosmedpub.com

Deborah E. Budash, MA, OTR/L, is an OT with 19 years experience in multiple clinical settings and in varied capacities including clinician, manager, and educator. Currently she teaches in the Health Sciences and Occupational Therapy Departments at Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania.