Life after stroke health talk

Tony Brown, one of our non-executive directors, hosted the latest 'Medicine for Members' event which was about how stroke changes lives and how it has a huge effect on the individual and their family.

Stroke survivor Rupert Cockcroft told his moving story of suffering a stroke 2 years ago.  He talked about how after his stroke his emotions became very difficult to manage, especially his anger and frustration he felt towards his situation and its effect on his family.  Members of the audience really engaged with his story and many related to his experiences as they too were experiencing something similar - this lead to a great, impromptu question and answer session.

Simon Kirwilliam, one of our clinical neuropsychologists, gave a presentation on what is a stroke, what are the risk factors, what are the symptoms and how we can prevent strokes from happening. 

Picking up on his theme, Nicola Lorena, a clinical specialist physiotherapist, and Anita Beles, a stroke support worker in community rehabilitation explained there is not one specific service focused on stroke prevention, but how risk factors are minimised by a range of our services and programmes.

Mark MacDonagh, Principal Psychotherapist, then discussed our joint social and healthcare project with the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC) called 'Brief therapy' for survivors of stroke.  This service was created because patients reported feeling stressed at the diagnosis stage of having a stroke right through to being discharged from hospital and going home.  Finishing with some very sensitive, personal questions from our members, this really was an engaging evening had by all.

Click here for more information about becoming a member and related events.

Click here to download the presentation slides from the event.

Pictured above (from left to right) are Mark MacDonagh, Tony Brown, Rupert Cockcroft, Simon Kirwilliam and Anita Beles.