One of the very first concerns is getting your loved one communicating again.  Being able to tell doctors, nurses and family members what is happening to them and what they are feeling is incredibly important.  We can work together to create communication systems that your loved one can use to make sure people understand them and their needs.  

When recovering from a stroke, head injury or other disorder that creates brain damage, one of the most important things to do is to create an environment where communication is necessary and successful.  Let’s put it this way:  If you always get everything you want without communicating, you have no real motivation to communicate, but if you never get anything you want or need even with your best communication strategies, you’ll also lose all motivation to communicate.  Our job is to make you or your loved one successful but not make it so easy that you or your loved one doesn’t need to try to communicate at all.

For most people with communication deficits, some sort of strategy to make yourself understood is needed.  Some of these are verbal, such as talking around the word you can’t think of, some are physical, such as using communication boards, signs, apps or other methods of augmenting your communication.  We can work together to find what works for you and what makes you feel comfortable. 

As much as I wish I could say that we can ‘fix’ a stroke in a few months, the reality is that for the vast majority of people this is a many year, sometimes lifelong, commitment to improvement.  Over time it will get better, and some things will become even better than before your stroke, but some things will be difficult for years and will take continuous work to overcome.  While many professionals work to help you become functional, I take the approach of working to help you become everything you want to be.