Wednesday, April 13, 2005

A tip for working with stroke patients.

Another tip from my cognitive disorders class (for speech language pathologists and occupational therapists):

Try to approach a new patient on their "good" side. Many patients will be unable to express that they cannot see you or are having trouble understanding you (especially in the case of left hemisphere stroke), while those with right hemisphere stroke may be completely unaware of your presence, or may be unconcerned by the fact that they can't really see you.

Also, be aware of the patient's premorbid interests. Someone who hated reading the paper before the insult probably won't be excited about practicing reading, so that they can "read the paper again."

posted by Mudfud @ 8:30 AM