Here are 10 tips that help you stay committed to stroke recovery program at home for successful healing after a stroke.

10 Tips on How to Stay Committed to Stroke Recovery at Home

The key to successful healing after a stroke comes down to two things: intensity
and frequency of exercises. This is why it’s so important to stay motivated and
perform your stroke treatment at home [https://www.neofect.com/us/] program
daily or as prescribed by your therapist. Easier said than done, right?


Here are 10 tips that can help you stay committed to your stroke treatment at
home:


 1. Set a goal for yourself: Setting a goal for yourself can help you stay
    motivated. When setting goals, don’t forget to take time to celebrate the
    small wins that lead to big wins. For example, if you love to paint you
    could set a long-term goal to be able to paint and you may set a short term
    goal to pick up a paintbrush with your affected hand.
    
    
 2. Set up a routine: Setting a routine will lead to seeing good results from
    doing your therapy. The more you stick with your routine, the easier it will
    get! Consider setting reminders on your phone or calendar.
    
    
 3. Find your motivation: In order to stick with a program, it’s important to be
    motivated. Before you start your home therapy program, figure out what your
    true motivation is. Perhaps it’s being able to cook again. If you feel like
    you are starting to slack at your home therapy program, remember your
    motivation. Keep that recipe book nearby!
    
    
 4. Stay as independent as you can: Sometimes being in a hospital for awhile and
    getting help with everything can cause you to quickly forget how much you
    can still do for yourself! Once you’re home however, fight back to get your
    independence back. For example, put your shirt on yourself and just ask for
    help with buttoning if needed.
    
    



 5. Find support: Having support during the healing process is important to
    staying committed and motivated during the rehab process. That support can
    come from friends, family members or peers in a stroke support group. You
    just have to be remember that this journey doesn’t have to be lonely!
    
    
 6. Be present and celebrate each success: Don’t forget to celebrate each
    success instead of just looking at the end goal. It’s easy to lose
    motivation if you are thinking about all the things you can't do instead of
    the things you can. For example, if you want to be able to pitch a baseball
    again, celebrate when you’re first able to hold the ball in your hand again.
    Little by little, you’ll get there.
    
    
 7. Stay active in your hobbies: Stay committed to the activities you enjoy
    doing! It will help you stay motivated to get better.
    
    



 8. Learn about your body: After a stroke many people will have tone. It’s
    helpful to pay attention to when your tone is at its best and perform your
    home therapy program then. For example, if your tone is best in the morning
    then you should perform your home therapy program in the morning.
    
    
 9. Don't ignore emotional distress: It’s very common to start feeling down
    after a stroke. Make sure to reach out for some support if you are starting
    to lose your motivation or are feeling down. Your friends, family, and peers
    at local support groups want to see you succeed as much as you do.
    
    



 10. Find a fun and motivating way to perform your therapy: Home exercise
     programs can get boring, so look for fun ways to stay engaged. Neofect
     [https://www.neofect.com/us/] developed the Smart Glove and Smart Board to
     bring fun and motivating therapy into homes. The Smart Glove and Smart
     Board use a gamified approach [https://www.neofect.com/us/] to perform
     therapeutic exercises and are able to capture all improvements along the
     way!

To learn more about the Smart Glove and Smart Board please call (888) 623-8984
[tel:+18886238984] or email contactus@neofect.com.

stroke recovery time

10 Tips From an Occupational Therapist on How to Stay Committed to Stroke Recovery at Home

Did you know games can help increase your brain health? We think that’s pretty cool too! Keep reading to find out how...

5 Ways Games Can Increase Brain Health After Stroke

Written by guest writer and stroke survivor, Peter Evans

Did you know games can help increase your brain health? We think that’s pretty
cool too! Keep reading to find out how:

1. Games take us “out of our heads” and into recovery
Post-Stroke Depression(PSD), anxiety, and other mental health conditions are
common during stroke rehabilitation.
[https://strokefoundation.org.au/About-Stroke/Help-after-stroke/Stroke-resources-and-fact-sheets/Depression-and-anxiety-after-stroke-fact-sheet] 
Luckily, playing games has shown to be an effective way of taking us out of our
heads. This helps keep negative thinking, despair, and worrying at bay. Games
played with family or friends can be an especially helpful for promoting social
interaction, combating isolation and getting us “out of our heads,” so we can
focus on getting better.



2.	Games provide repetition without the monotony
Repetition, consistency and high levels of engagement are often cited as key
determinants in successful stroke rehabilitation. And, whether it’s picking up a
discard in gin rummy, laying down a seven-letter word in Scrabble, or reaching a
higher level in Candy Crush, all games require repetitive tasks and actions to
reach a larger goal. Hm, that sounds an awful lot like work... but it’s not!
Games by their nature are designed to keep us engaged, even entertained, while
we complete what might otherwise be a set of repetitive or boring tasks—all the
benefits of work without it feeling like, well, work! Repetition has been shown
to improve motor function an control after stroke, so why not do it in a fun and
engaging way?



3.	Games require active participation
During recovery, many stroke survivors find themselves with more time on their
hands than they’re used to. And, while watching a great science documentary or
listening to a classic audio book may seem like a worthwhile past time—and they
are— when it comes to increasing the brain’s neuroplasticity, activities that
require active participation are much more helpful. Games require us to show up,
pay attention and keep our head in the game. There are rules to learn and
master, strategies to test, tasks to conquer and progress to monitor.

4.	Games provide clear guidance and objective feedback
In addition to monotony, another common barrier to completing therapy exercises
is the confusion on which exercises to complete and how to correctly perform
them. Many games provide multiple metrics giving you confidence and more insight
into how you’re doing. It’s more than just wins versus losses. Games can provide
feedback on overall speed, accuracy, best play or most points per round.

5.	Games exercise multiple areas of the brain at once
With games you need to learn and remember the rules, track progress and manage
multiple tasks and strategies. These are all great activities for strengthening
your brain health after a stroke or other brain injury. Executive function, fine
motor skills, memory, concentration and planning are all areas of brain function
that are engaged while playing games. The more time a stroke survivor can spend
relearning how to simultaneously balance and manage multiple functional
activities, the faster and deeper the recovery can be. And Recovery is the name
of the game!



If a gamified approach to rehabilitation sounds exciting, get in touch with 
Neofect [http://www.neofect.com] to try out any one of their Neofect Smart
Rehab
tools [https://www.neofect.com/us]. Their products include the Smart Board, a
device for reach retraining, and the Smart Glove for improving forearm, wrist
and hand function. There’s even the the Smart Pegboard, which provides training
for fine motor control. All of the Smart Rehab tools harness the power of games
for recovery. To learn more, call (888) 623-8984 [tel:+18886238984] or email 
contactus@neofect.com.