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This journey might be long for some and short for others. The doctors that work with your care partner will determine when it is appropriate to go home (based on medical needs, and the amount of help they might need).
The first part of this journey starts at the hospital, where the medical team will perform brain scans to determine the extent of the stroke and provide appropriate medical management, including medications such as blood thinners to prevent future strokes. Following this, your care partner might get transferred to an inpatient rehabilitation facility or a subacute facility. Here, they will continue to receive the medical care they require along with physical, occupational and speech therapy. The difference between the two is that at a subacute facility the intensity of rehabilitation is usually quite a bit less compared to inpatient rehab, but they will still continue to receive care. From here, they will be discharged home with either home care services or outpatient services, unless they need long term institutional care. If they receive home care, usually a nurse is involved to ensure there are no changes that occur medically. In addition to this, your family will continue to receive physical/occupational and/or speech therapy at home. Outpatient services, on the other hand, require your care partner to go to a clinic to receive therapy. They may be required to continue to follow up with a neurologist frequently on an outpatient basis.
During their recovery, your care partner might not require all three therapies. Based on the impact of the stroke, they might need only physical or occupational therapy and not speech therapy (ex. When language has not been affected, but there might be physical weakness). Or there might be a situation where they only need speech and not PT or OT and so on. The therapist that works with you will make that determination regarding what therapies your family will need and will continue to need along the way.
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