Support Groups Help Stroke Survivors With Recovery Process

Every 45 seconds, someone in the United States experiences a stroke. Most victims survive, but recovery can be tough. That's why some stroke survivors rely on support groups. In the second part of her series on stroke recovery, KPCC's Susan Valot visited a support group at UCLA.

Susan Valot: A giant wooden table fills a conference room at the university's Semel Institute. People start to filter in on a Tuesday afternoon. They're stroke survivors. Some are in wheelchairs, but others show no obvious signs that they've had a stroke. Reams Freedman of the Stroke Association of Southern California leads the group.

Reams Freedman: Welcome.
Person: Hi.
Freedman: Come in.

Valot: Freedman is a licensed family therapist. He's 66, but was 10 years younger when he suffered a severe stroke of his own. Freedman says stroke hits you from all directions – physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Freedman: There are many, many effects that, that a person doesn't discover, or a family doesn't discover, until after the event. And what we're trying to do here, and in this group as well, is help give people information up front, so they have the information they need sooner, rather than later.

Valot: Freedman says sometimes, stroke survivors feel abandoned by the system, as they transition from being cared for in a hospital or rehab center, to taking charge of their own recovery. It can be an abrupt transition. For weeks, you're surrounded by a team of doctors and nurses... and then suddenly, you're home, alone.

Freedman: A medical model really can only do so much. And there's a point six months down the line where it's more of a social model, or a community model, in which individuals look at: what can I do for myself? What can we do together? What information do others have? What experience do others have, that can help me?

Valot: Sheila Braslau of Santa Monica provides some of that experience at the UCLA stroke recovery group. She suffered her stroke 12 years ago. She's 73 now... a stroke survivor, she says, not a victim. But Braslau says recovery is frustrating.

Sheila Braslau: It's so damn slow. And I thought, when I had the big stroke, I thought, oh, this one will take a year or two to get rid of. And now I know that I'll die with the stroke, but not of the stroke.

Valot: Braslau says there's comfort in the camaraderie of the support group. The group understands the changes in emotion after a stroke, and the struggles to keep your old friends who may not know how to treat you.

Braslau: There are some people who make progress immediately, make a great deal of progress. But they all want to help the other person, because they've been there and done that, and that's what we have in common.

Valot: In the middle of the support group meeting, a man wheels a younger woman into the room. She suffered a stroke very recently. She doesn't say much. But every once in a while, she breaks down into quiet sobs. Freedman tries to comfort her.

Freedman: Right now, it may be hard to, to feel hopeful, but you're going to have a chance to meet other people in this room who, who've been where you are. And I hope that's helpful for you. Would anybody like to share with...?

Valot: From across the room, Lenny Hess, an 88-year-old stroke survivor, jumps in with some encouragement.

Lenny Hess: And I want to tell you, this room, the people in this room, all have the same story to tell you that I do in different– Don't, don't worry.
Woman: OK.
Hess: You're going to be fine.
Woman: OK.
Hess: You're going to be strong, and you're going to live with us, and, happy with us. And you're going to help us. Each of us will help you, and you have to help us.

Valot: Stroke survivor, and group leader, Reams Freedman says his stroke had a silver lining... once he got past feeling like his life was over.

Freedman: I'm closer to being the person I want to be today than I was before the stroke, but it took some processing to get to that point.

Valot: And Freedman hopes support groups like the Tuesday afternoon group he leads at UCLA will help others reach that point, too.

Freedman: OK, well we're down to the, to the end. Thank you all.

Note: To find out about stroke recovery support groups in Southern California, please call the Stroke Association of Southern California at (310) 575-1699.