Therapy is upside down.

When a survivor first has their stroke the brain is very vulnerable. And because it's vulnerable the survivor shouldn't do very much. The first few days after stroke is a time to convalesce. There is a time to add intensity to the recovery effort. But during the first few days, generally referred to as the acute phase, is not when intensity should be attempted. There are more important things to do. Like saving as much brain is possible (the domain of medical doctors).

So what do therapists do during acute phase? Most therapists involved in acute care will tell you the same thing: "We do whatever they can." That is, whatever the patient is physically able to do is encouraged. But there is often not very much the stroke survivor can do. Yet therapy immediately after stroke is generous. There is often hours per day slated for acute care therapy. But that's not when hours are needed. Hours are needed during the subacute phase.

The subacute phase is usually defined as "seven days to three months." But this is actually a misrepresentation. The fact is, like anything with stroke, it's different for every survivor. Each phase, in fact, happens in a different time for each individual survivor. In any case, it's the subacute phase when intensive efforts towards recovery should begin. Yet for many stroke survivors there's actually a reduction in the number of hours of therapy during the subacute phase as compared to the acute phase. In this way, therapy for stroke survivors is upside down.

By: "stroke recovery blog" "stroke blog"