What are the basic concepts of stroke rehabilitation?

  Stroke rehabilitation means taking all measures to prevent the onset of disability and mitigate its effects so that stroke patients can return to a normal social life. Rehabilitation is not only about training patients to adapt to their surroundings, but also about adapting their environment and social conditions to facilitate their reintegration into society. Stroke rehabilitation services should be planned with the participation of the patient, his or her family and the community. The term “all measures” here refers not only to medical, but also to educational, vocational, social, engineering and other measures. Therefore, stroke rehabilitation is a comprehensive rehabilitation, secondary prevention and tertiary prevention are also important elements of rehabilitation, and stroke rehabilitation is a systemic project.  Stroke rehabilitation refers to the medical rehabilitation of stroke patients from the medical point of view, through rehabilitation doctors, rehabilitation nurses, rehabilitation therapists (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, orthopedic braces, etc.), psychologists, medical social workers, patients and their families, and other group rehabilitation medical activities (rehabilitation team). The implementation of rehabilitation in medical institutions should be integrated with rehabilitation in intermediate facilities and in the community and at home, so that stroke rehabilitation is both distinct and inseparable from its non-medical aspects. The main components of stroke rehabilitation are: 1) prevention, recognition and management of various neurological deficits and medical comorbidities and complications during stroke, avoiding “disuse syndrome” and “misuse syndrome”; 2) maximizing the patient’s independence; and 3) enabling the patient and family members to live independently. The prevention of secondary disabilities through social participation (e.g., returning home to live with family members, children going to school, participating in recreational and occupational activities, etc.); 5. In order to implement these tasks, clinical stroke rehabilitation should focus on active preventive rehabilitation, proper rehabilitative functional assessment, proper rehabilitation treatment, and the development of an appropriate rehabilitation system.