Stroke survivors often require frequent physical therapy, occupational therapy, or speech therapy. Fortunately, increasingly rehabilitation clinics are incorporating telestroke rehabilitation services into their program offerings to handle transportation issues and other barriers comparable to time constraints, resource constraints, geographic challenges, or compatibility with traditional therapy models.
Our latest article, Distant rehabilitation after stroke: what makes it different? examines the advantages of virtual rehabilitation therapy with a case study. In this text we are going to answer the query: Does telerehabilitation after stroke really work?
What’s telerehabilitation after a stroke?
Telerehabilitation uses virtual technology with a pc or mobile device to offer physical, occupational and speech therapy. It empowers patients, provides more efficient services and helps overcome geographic barriers to access to healthcare. The virtual approach allows stroke survivors to profit from distant rehabilitation therapy directly in their very own home using familiar tools.
Probably the most significant advantages of telerehabilitation is its additional accessibility. It eliminates transportation challenges and suits seamlessly into patients’ homes and routines. Nevertheless, telerehabilitation isn’t only about convenience. That is an evolution in therapy that may enable patients to actively take part in the recovery process.
Each patient is exclusive and his treatment ought to be as well. The teletherapist will adapt the therapy to the person needs of every patient. Personalization of treatment is important for patient-centered telerehabilitation and achieving optimal outcomes.
By adapting home therapy to individual needs, you possibly can achieve greater effectiveness, commitment and repeatability of rehabilitation exercises. Some patients report even higher experiences with home therapy than with in-person therapy.
Taking advantage of your tools at home
Stroke telerehabilitation uses stroke rehabilitation equipment and technologies, comparable to neurorehabilitation devices, robotics, or virtual reality. These tools can provide real-time information that helps the rehabilitation team monitor and track progress and adjust treatment plans.
Recovering from a stroke requires consistency and lots of repetition. Subsequently, therapists can use state-of-the-art neurorehabilitation equipment, so patients can experience an optimized combination of technology and personalized therapy. These devices provide immediate feedback to patients and therapists. Devices like FitMi home therapy from Flint Rehab provide motivation and encourage consistency.
Additional tools comparable to therapy apps help motivate patients, increasing treatment adherence. Your therapy team will encourage you to follow an exercise program at home between therapy sessions, and apps could be a particularly helpful and enjoyable technique to do that.
In between telerehabilitation sessions, stroke recovery apps can enable you get your every day therapeutic dose while keeping your recovery program in a fun and fascinating technique to encourage consistency.
Telerehabilitation for stroke survivors: does it work?
Telerehabilitation in stroke care could seem recent, however it got here into the highlight in 1999 and patients have been using telerehabilitation for over a decade. Telerehabilitation visits are easy to schedule, giving patients higher access to rehabilitation specialists, including physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists.
People can virtually connect with a therapist to enhance shoulder function, strength, balance, walking after stroke and more. Therapists may also develop exercise treatment plans to enhance motor, cognitive, and neurological deficits after a stroke.
But you ought to know: Does telerehabilitation really help with stroke recovery? Allow us to recall what the study shows:
Research on post-stroke therapy
Studies have shown that telerehabilitation after stroke might be effective as effective as face-to-face care. Like traditional in-person rehabilitation, telerehabilitation can enable you get better from a stroke by improving arm and leg function, independence, walking ability and balance.
Review 13 Randomized, controlled trials have shown that telerehabilitation might be as effective as usual care in improving motor function, ability to perform activities of every day living, independence, satisfaction, quality of life, and other essential outcomes after stroke.
Subsequently, you possibly can rest assured that telerehabilitation is backed by research and might enable you make significant progress in your stroke recovery, identical to in-person rehabilitation sessions.
The next subsections outline additional areas of research on the effectiveness of telerehabilitation within the postoperative period and patient and caregiver satisfaction.
Research on motor functions
Shifting the main target to home therapy helps be sure that rehabilitation efforts are more relevant to the patient’s actual needs and goals. During a telerehabilitation visit, therapists review and update exercises with patients.
During this time, the patient and therapist discuss progress, review exercises, and exhibit and perform exercises or activities together. Telerehabilitation programs are increasingly specializing in helping patients achieve functional outcomes, comparable to performing activities of every day living at home, reasonably than simply improving physical disabilities.
Last studies emphasize that activity-based telerehabilitation works equally well on functional improvement, improving arm motor function after therapy, not only in people after stroke, but in addition in individuals with spinal cord injuries and musculoskeletal diseases.
Telerehabilitation has higher or equal effects on motor function, higher cortical function and depression in patients, with significant differences observed in patients 8 out of twenty-two studies was conducted in a recent systematic review.
Patient satisfaction surveys
Patients are satisfied with telerehabilitation, especially due to additional convenience. Furthermore, the comfort of sessions at home also enhances adherence to stroke recovery treatment. Patient satisfaction is crucial to maintaining motivation, treatment adherence, and resilience during stroke recovery.
Advantages for carers
Should you are a stroke survivor, having a supportive caregiver by your side could make an enormous difference in your recovery journey. Telerehabilitation programs not only profit you – research shows that additionally they help your caregivers. Tests reports that family caregivers profit from telerehabilitation since it helps increase caregiver workload, knowledge, and competence.
In the subsequent installment, we’ll share Katy’s inspiring story – a reminder that meaningful stroke recovery is feasible with determination and the fitting support. We hope Katy’s story of resilience motivates you to proceed to grow, one step at a time.
Katy’s recovery story
We understand that recovering from a stroke might be overwhelming at times. But you do not have to undergo this difficult experience alone. Many stroke survivors have undergone this journey and regained their independence through perseverance and proper care.
Reading their inspiring stories can provide motivation and hope in your journey. Whether your victory is opening a cabinet to cook in your family or climbing the steps and sleeping in your individual bed, every achievement is value celebrating.
Here is the story of Katy’s recovery from a stroke:
Meet Katy, a resilient stroke survivor who desires to regain independence in her every day life. Faced with the challenge of using her affected arm, Katy began the recovery process with the support of an occupational therapist through Imago rehabilitation.
Katy set herself a straightforward but significant goal – she opened a drawer within the kitchen along with her affected arm. With consistency and repetition, she practiced and translated these movements through virtual guidance into her exercise program, which marked a triumph for her and the telerehabilitation methodology.
This achievement symbolizes Katy’s personal victory and highlights the potential of telerehabilitation to empower stroke survivors on their path to independence.
Understanding telerehabilitation after stroke
Telerehabilitation is a profound change in the way in which you get better. Its effectiveness has been confirmed by science, appreciated by patients and fueled by the human touch of experienced therapists conducting each session virtually. Deciding whether telerehab is correct for you will depend on several aspects, comparable to your comfort with technology and the sort of interaction you like with therapists.