Body, participation and self transformations during and after in-patient stroke rehabilitation

Abstract

This study explores stroke survivors’ experience of being part of an institutional rehabilitation context and what it means for the immediate experience of discharge home. The aim is to develop a deeper understanding of how the dynamic phenomenon body, participation in everyday life and sense of self interrelates and changes through stroke survivors’ movement in and between the two contexts and what this phenomenon means for stroke survivors’ process of change and well-being in the early rehabilitation trajectory. Repeated, retrospective, in-depth interviews were conducted with nine persons living with moderate impairment after stroke and their closest relatives. Phenomenological and critical psychological concepts are used for analysing the data. Stroke survivors’ experience indicates that their time as in-patients is important for their safety in the early juncture. Being part of an institutional rehabilitation context mobilizes stroke survivors’ to optimize focus, energy and hope of physical recovery. At the same time it appears to postpone feelings of uncertainty and grief as well as reflection on their situation. However, immediately after homecoming a critical passage in the stroke survivors’ rehabilitation trajectory appears because the perception of body, participation in everyday life and the sense of self undergo profound changes. This study stresses the importance of broadening the scope of professional initiative and paying attention to the post-rehabilitation context of everyday life during the in-patient stay.