What happens in an inpatient rehab hospital after a stroke?

Here you and your family will meet with the doctor, nurse and social worker who perform their assessments and gather information regarding your home setup and additional support. This helps the entire medical team (along with the therapists) plan and prepare for the next steps once they are discharged from the facility. This facility can be a rehabilitation unit in a hospital or a freestanding rehabilitation center. The average length of stay at this facility can range from 2-3 weeks, possibly less based on their recovery or longer if there are more complex needs. 

The rehabilitation team consists of the physical therapist, occupational therapist and speech therapist. They will receive therapy to address some of their challenges – it might be weakness, speech and language, vision, cognitive functions like memory, recall, attention, insight. In addition to this, when appropriate, they will focus on incorporating family members/caregivers in sessions to help with exercises or initiating some hands-on training to prepare for discharge to home. Some hospitals have a recreational therapist on staff to provide recreational based activities to help with depression, anxiety and also to promote socialization. Other members that might be part of the medical team are a psychologist or neuro-psychologist, doctors specializing in infectious diseases, skin and wound healing, a psychiatrist and a urologist.