Stroke Rehabilition
STROKE REHABILITATION
Neurological Physiotherapy
Neurological physiotherapy is a special field of Physiotherapy helping people with damage (disease or injury) to the brain, spinal cord or nervous system making movement and activities difficult.
It aims to promote recovery and independence and slow down neurological decline. Our aim is to improve your quality of life.
What do we treat?
- Stroke
- Brain injury
- Spinal cord injury
- Multiple sclerosis
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Other Neurological disorders.
Neuroplasticity – The brains ability to change
Neuroplasticity refers to the plastic ability of the brain and nervous system, which can continuously remodel throughout one’s lifetime. Neuroplasticity is the fundamental key to creating any form of change whether physical or mental. The more you think, act, or move in a certain way the strength of those neurons increase over time making those actions automatic.
To improve or change you need to promote neuroplastic changes which are driven using six core principles
- Meaningful – The outcome and activity must be interesting and relevant to the individual
- Repetitive – Thousands of repetitions are needed to build new pathways
- Intensity – Need to work hard enough to increase the cardio and respiratory drive to release essential hormones into the brain.
- Specific – To the skill required to achieve the goal
- Challenging and varied – To build the base to perform the skill in any setting
- Timed – The complete task must be completed in day-to-day life successfully not just in therapy
We are experts on neuroplasticity, which means we assists you to reconnect the brain, spinal cord and the body. Rehabilitation is an active and ever-changing process through which a person with a disability is helped to gain knowledge and skills with the goal of improving their physical abilities.
As well as one-one treatment in the clinic that is perfectly tailored to your condition we also assist the stroke foundation to run exercise classes.
Physical Activities
Strengthening motor skills involves using exercises to help improve your muscle strength and coordination, including therapy to help with swallowing.
Mobility training may include learning to use walking aids, such as a walker or canes, or a plastic brace (orthosis) to stabilize and assist ankle strength to help support your body’s weight while you relearn how to walk.
Constraint-induced therapy, also known as forced-use therapy, involves restricting use of an unaffected limb while you practice moving the affected limb to help improve its function.
Range-of-motion therapy uses exercises and other treatments to help lessen muscle tension (spasticity) and regain range of motion. Sometimes medication can help as well.
Technology-assisted physical activities:
Functional electrical stimulation involves using electricity to stimulate weakened muscles, causing them to contract. This may help with muscle re-education.
Virtual reality,such as the use of video games and the wii, is an emerging area of treatment.
Stroke rehabilitation takes time – Recovering from a stroke can be a long and sometimes frustrating experience. It’s normal to face difficulties along the way. Dedication and willingness to work toward improvement will help you gain the most benefit.
According to the NZ Stroke guidelines clients should have as much therapy appropriate to their needs as they are willing and able to tolerate.
UK guidelines support the above statement but stipulate the minimum intervention of 45 minutes daily for each therapy required
Research into the amount of therapy indicated a greater amount of exercise therapy resulted in higher ability in Activities of daily living and walking (gait) speed.