Stroke Rehabilitation

Allied health services for Stroke for Townsville & North Queensland

At Alliance Rehabilitation, our multi-disciplinary team offers stroke rehabilitation for participants who are experiencing the effects of stroke. A stroke can cause weakness, problems with movement, and can cause difficulty in carrying out everyday activities. Our team work to help the participant regain a good quality of life. Our training programs are designed to help them regain their independence and as much function as possible.

What is a stroke?

A stroke attacks the brain and disrupts the blood flow. When blood cannot get to the brain, because of a blocked artery, brain cells begin to die from lack of oxygen and nutrients. A stroke can impact different areas of the brain which control different things. This damage affects how you think, behave, speak, swallow, see, feel, touch, and move your body. Stroke is a leading cause of disability in Australia and affects around 56 000 Australians a year. Anyone can be at risk of a stroke and the team at Alliance Rehabilitation are trained in paediatric and adult stroke recovery.

What are the signs of stroke?

The Stroke Foundation has an acronym to aid in identifying signs of stroke. They recommend using the F.A.S.T test.

Face Check their face. Has their mouth drooped?
Arms Can they lift both arms?
Speech Is their speech slurred? Do they understand you?
Time Is critical. If you see any of these signs call 000 straight away

Other signs of stroke include:

Paralysis, weakness, or numbness of the face, arm, or leg on either or both sides of the body
Difficulty understanding or speaking
Loss of balance, an unexplained fall, or dizziness
Loss of vision or blurring in one or both eyes
A severe and abrupt onset of a headache
Difficult swallowing

Visit Stroke Foundation for further Stroke resources.

What are the different types of stroke?

There are three types of stroke, ischaemic, haemorrhagic, and transient ischaemic attack (TIA).

An ischaemic stroke is caused by a blood clot. This type of stroke can occur in two ways, embolic and thrombotic. An embolic stroke is a blood clot which forms somewhere in the body, usually the heart, and travels through the bloodstream to the brain. The clot can get stuck in a vessel that is too small for it to pass and stops blood from getting through. A thrombotic stroke is caused when blood leaves behind a buildup of cholesterol-laden plaque which blocks the artery and stops blood from getting through. The plaque can affect the major arteries in the neck taking blood to the brain.

A haemorrhagic stroke is caused by a break in the wall of a blood vessel, causing blood to leak into the brain and stopping the delivery of nutrients and oxygen. There are two types of this stroke, intracerebral (artery inside the brain bursts and bleeds) and subarachnoid (bleeding on the surface of the brain). Hypertension, an aneurysm, and arteriovenous malformation can cause this type of stroke.

A transient ischaemic attack is known as a mini stroke. It is similar to a stroke, but the symptoms last for a shorter amount of time. The artery blockage is only temporary, but still requires immediate attention as a TIA is a warning that you are at risk of a stroke.

Risk factors

Anyone can have a stroke; age is not the only risk factor and a stroke can occur in people at any time.

The main risk factors for stroke include:

Age – The risk of having a stroke increases the older you get due to your arteries becoming narrower and harder.
Medical conditions – Certain conditions increase your risk including high blood pressure, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, and high cholesterol.
Lifestyle factors – Smoking, alcohol intake, weight gain, and unhealthy eating habits can damage your blood vessels and increase your blood pressure which can make your blood more likely to clot.
Family history – Your risk level is higher if a family member has had a stroke.
Contraception – High levels of oestrogen can make your blood more likely to clot, so women with other risk factors may not be able to use oestrogen based contraception.
Pregnancy – Health conditions like pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes increase your risk of a stroke.
Migraines – Migraines with an aura can make your risk slightly higher.

To reduce your risk of stroke, you should have regular visits with your GP to help control any medical conditions. Alliance rehabilitation has a team who can help you reduce any lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise. We have clinicians who can help with dietetics and nutrition, diabetic education, exercise physiology, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy.

Diagnosis and Treatment for Stroke

No two strokes are the same and everyone’s recovery time is different. Receiving treatment as soon as you can gives you a better chance of making a good recovery.

If you have a suspected stroke, the hospital will ask about your signs and symptom to confirm the symptoms were caused by a stroke. They will then run tests to confirm what type of stroke it was, what area of the brain was affected, how severe the stroke was, the impact it had on the brain, and begin treatment.

Effects of stroke

The determining factors for the effects of stroke include the type of stroke, location of the blocked or burst artery, which area of the brain was damaged, how much is permanently damaged, general health, and level of activity before the stroke.

Problems people experience after a stroke:

Weakness on one side of the body
Problems with movement coordination and control
Neglect of one side of the body
Difficulties swallowing
Behavioural changes
Outbursts of emotion without cause (emotional lability)
Problems with memory and thinking
Difficulty with senses – smell, touch, taste, sight, and hearing
Problems with your reading and writing
Vision loss
Incontinence
Fatigue

Childhood Stroke
Types of paediatric stroke

Childhood Stroke

Strokes can be common for children in Australia with the Stroke Foundation revealing between 300 to 500 children will have a stroke each year and affects 2300 to 5000 newborns.

Signs of stroke in newborns can appear as seizures, or extreme sleepiness. In children, and teenagers it can appear as weakness or numbness in the face, arm or leg; difficulty talking, understanding, reading or writing; trouble seeing or loss of vision; dizziness; severe or unusual headaches, nausea, or vomiting; difficulty swallowing; seizures with weakness; difficulty concentrating or behavioural changes; and in some cases it can cause children to collapse.

Stroke can affect children in the same way as adults, depending which area of the brain was affected. It can cause difficulties with sitting, standing, balancing, and walking. It can become difficult to communicate, can cause cognitive difficulties, and can create behavioural issues. Starting rehabilitation early increases chances of a good recovery.

Types of paediatric stroke

There are two types of paediatric stroke, perinatal and childhood stroke.

Perinatal strokes occur before birth or shortly after birth from 28 weeks pregnancy to one month old. Risk factors for perinatal stroke include pregnancy complications, difficulties during birth, and infections.

A childhood stroke can occur from one month to eighteen years old. Risk factors for childhood stroke include problems with the brain’s blood vessels.

In ischaemic stroke this includes:

Vasculitis – inflammation of blood vessels
Focal cerebral arteriopathy – narrowing of blood vessels
Head or neck trauma – trauma can cause clots to form
Moyamoya disease – narrowing and blockage of blood vessels

In haemorrhagic stroke this includes:

Arteriovenous malformation (AVM) – tangled blood vessels in the brain
Cavernous malformation – cluster of abnormal blood vessels in the brain
Aneurysm – weak or thin spot in an artery wall

The types of stroke are the same with one additional type for children, cerebral sinovenous thrombosis, which is a rarer stroke which causes a blood clot in the veins within the brain. This causes increased pressure or bleeding when blood and fluids stop draining from the brain.

How stroke rehabilitation can help you

Early intervention and access to stroke rehabilitation is important in ensuring the best possible recovery. After a stroke, pathways in the brain can change so uninjured parts can help the injured areas. Repetition is a key tool in creating new pathways and the brain’s neuroplasticity (ability to change and adapt) is a big part in helping to learn new skills. Alliance Rehabilitation offers a multidisciplinary team who can help target all areas affected by stroke. Our team can help with:

Therapies targeted specifically towards your individual recovery.
Coordination team to help manage care and therapy.
Dietary assessment for all nutritious needs.
Psychology for emotional wellbeing and mood assessment. Can manage effects of concentration, memory, and judgement.
Social work for managing practical impacts following a stroke such as financial difficulties and applications for services.
Occupational therapy for returning to performing everyday tasks, and skills. Returning you to your best quality of life.
Physiotherapy and exercise physiology for difficulty with balance and coordination, and hemiparesis (weakness on one side of the body, affecting the whole side or part of an arm or leg).
Speech pathology for problems with language use or swallowing, and changes to memory, attention, or learning.

Our team of rehabilitation experts

At Alliance Rehabilitation, our treatment is client focused and goal focused. We want to focus on what is important to you and establish meaningful short- and long-term goals. The most rapid recovery occurs in the first few weeks and months following a stroke.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapists work with stroke survivors to optimise their function and independence for daily activities. Occupational therapy involves re-learning everyday activities and your therapist can help with day to day tasks, return to work, or leisure activities following a stroke. Your OT can help develop your skills and confidence with managing these activities. They may also suggest equipment to help your recovery.

An OT can: assess your difficulties and help you and your family understand them better, adapt activities for you to improve your abilities and independence, teach you strategies and techniques to overcome any difficulties, provide aids and equipment, perform a home assessment, and advise on your return to work.

Alliance Rehabilitation also provides driving assessments for participants hoping to return to driving following a stroke. Driving is considered a very freeing form of independence and removing it can cause depression, employment challenges, and reduced social connectedness. Driving is one of the last goals considered in your therapy as rehabilitation is the primary focus. We provide off road and on road assessments and have state of the art Tyromotion equipment and a driving simulator to help you regain your skills for your test. Read More >

Clinically supervised Tyromotion robotic and computerised therapy available

Physiotherapy

Cognitive impairment is common after a stroke and is associated with reduced quality of life, accelerated functional decline, and risk of mortality and dependency. Physical activity is an intervention which can provide significant improvements, it involves a lot of repetition including stepping, reaching, and balance practice. Physiotherapy helps you to relearn movements for day to day living and can help with muscle stiffness and spasticity, problems with movement, and joint pain. We also offer hydrotherapy, an aquatic based therapy which is proven to help in stroke recovery. Read More >

Exercise Physiology

Exercise Physiology can be an option for your rehab after a stroke. Physiotherapy is the primary treatment following a stroke, especially when treating issues such as hemiplegia (paralysis on one side of the body). However, when it involves coordination and balance, exercise physiologists can provide a good plan for working with these deficits. Exercise training improves functional training, reduces the risk of cardiovascular issues, and can be customised for participants to maximise long term recovery. Physical activity and exercise prescription help to prevent reoccurrence of stroke. Our exercise physios can also provide hydrotherapy sessions and come up with an exercise plan for attending the pool. Read More >

Speech Pathology

Speech pathologists’ study, diagnose, and treat communication disorders including difficulties with speaking, listening, understanding language, reading, writing, social skills, fluency, and voice. They work with people who experience dysphagia (difficulties moving food around the mouth and swallowing) and aphasia (difficulty talking, reading, writing, or understanding people).

A speech pathologist will assess you, identify any deficits, and work to develop a rehabilitation plan to meet your goals. This can include functional phrase and speech practice – identifying a list of key phrases to get across what you want to say consistently and clearly. Drill based activities are also used to target areas of impairment and articulation problems as well as difficulties with finding the right word.

Other activities you can expect from a session include sentence mapping therapy, spelling, understanding spoken language, and rehab to improve muscle groups. Our speech pathologists can provide you and your family/ care team with education and necessary tools for how to overcome or how to facilitate reduced word finding problems. They can also assess if you are safe with your diet and fluids or if you may be at risk of aspiration (choking). Read More >

Dietetics and Nutrition

Dietitians are a key member of a stroke care team as they ensure proper hydration and nutrition requirements are met. Receiving individualised dietary advice is important in aiding stroke recovery. After a stroke you may have problems using your arm or hand which can make it difficult to eat or drink, memory issues which cause you to forget to eat or drink, loss of appetite, or dysphagia which is difficulty swallowing and moving food around the mouth. Dietitians help you get the correct nutrients and recommend supplements or foods with a different consistency. Your diet after a stroke is important as healthy eating can reduce your risk of having another stroke. Read More >

Psychology

Life after stroke can be difficult and seeing a psychologist can help with mood and changing your way of thinking. Changes in your emotions and your personality are common following a stroke, this includes irritability, not feeling like doing anything, saying or doing things which seem inappropriate to others, and being impulsive. A psychologist can give you tools with how to cope with overwhelming or difficult feelings during your recovery period. They provide treatment for anxiety and depression as well as help for your family. Our psychologists use a variety of techniques but will always work to find the best approach for you. Read More >

Nursing

Incontinence after a stroke can be common and our nursing team can provide resources and support. Regaining control of your bladder and bowels can improve your wellbeing and recovery. Read More >

Social Work

Social workers can provide support, counselling, and information to stroke survivors and their families. A stroke can occur anytime which can leave you struggling socially, emotionally, and financially in the aftermath. Our social worker can help you deal with life after stroke by assisting with applications and advocacy during your recovery. Read More >

Diabetes Education

Having diabetes makes you twice as likely to have a stroke. Our diabetes educator can give you the tools to manage your diabetes and help reduce your risk of stroke. Managing your diabetes well will give you the best quality of life and keep your risk level down. Read More >

Why choose Alliance Rehabilitation?

Having one organisation for your stroke rehabilitation needs is important in ensuring you have a full recovery. Our community approach allows us to tailor a program to each individual and ensure we are meeting your goals. Our clinicians work together to aid in your recovery, and this gives everyone a clear picture of who you are as a person. We focus on getting you back to how you were before you had the stroke, with tools and recovery options to prevent reoccurrence. No matter what your circumstances were like before your stroke, we want to assure you, Alliance Rehabilitation is working to guarantee you succeed and regain the quality of life you deserve.

Referral Options

There are many ways for you to be referred to our facility. The main options for stroke rehabilitation are through or Community Based Rehabilitation Program and the NDIS but other options are available for you too. We also travel to different locations in North Queensland, so location is never a barrier to your health and recovery. Our main office is in Townsville with outreach locations available in Ayr, Charters Towers, Richmond, Hughenden, Ingham, Palm Island, and Magnetic Island.