Stroke clients' perceptions of disability and treatment

Twenty subjects who had experienced a stroke and were serving as a control group in a larger research project, were interviewed regarding the effect the stroke had had on their lives and their perceptions of the occupational therapy they had received. The majority of the subjects had very little understanding of the nature of a stroke but were well able to articulate the effect the stroke had had on their lives. How each person experienced a stroke was very different, yet the losses each felt related to North American values of independence, mobility, individual control and coping. Treatment received in occupational therapy was most commonly described in terms of games; very few people had grasped the notion that the central purpose of occupational therapy was to help them to perform daily living tasks independently. Therapists should consequently consider the use of more fu'nctionally oriented treatment.