Rehabilitation helps you recover after a stroke. Rehabilitation does this by helping you:

• regain skills you lost or which have been affected by the stroke, for example walking, eating or speaking.
• learn new skills to help you cope with any longer term changes due to the stroke. Such changes could be physical (eg. leg weakness), psychological (eg. the way you think, feel or respond to things) or social (eg. activities you enjoyed doing or the way you interact with friends or family).
• get on with life after you leave hospital by providing social, emotional and practical support.
  

Rehabilitation is specific to your problems. Plans and goals will be made with you to help your particular problems. These may change over time and will be different for each person.

It is important that rehabilitation begins as soon as possible after a stroke. When you practise activities over and over again, your body learns to do things differently, helping you to recover.

It is vital that you put the most effort you can into rehabilitation to increase your chance of a better recovery. Rehabilitation should also be viewed as something you do all the time - 24 hours a day (even getting out of bed at night to go to the toilet is part of the process).

A team of rehabilitation professionals will work with you and your family to help you. Your attitude and involvement as well as that of your family and friends also play an important part in the recovery.  View the Stroke Rehabilitation booklet  (.pdf 1MB)