The family – care sponsor of patients suffering from cerebrovascular accidents

The purpose of this bibliographical review is to show the role of the family in the application of care of a patient suffering from a cerebrovascular accident (CVA). CVA's are, second to arthritis, one of the most impairing illnesses in terms of ability that creates the need for training the patient on a new basis and giving the family information on new roles. One of the dimensions of holistic family care is the increased support the patient receives from family care givers. Studies and clinical research both show that informing families on care giver roles is inadequate or non‐existent. Adequate training of nurses to prepare care givers via specialized programs stimulates the family to respond to the new challenge and take on roles that are multidimensional and complicated. It is important that family care givers of people with CVA's are given new information and taught new skills in order for these patients to maximize their own self‐care potential. CVA patients, following the acute phase of their illness and rehabilitation in specialized centers are nursed at home, mainly by their families with the help of healthcare services. Usually, the responsibilities the family takes on are mainly those of self‐care needs of the patient and his motivation, so that he will organize and carry out basic life activities via learning new ways to face everyday life, always within his impaired abilities. Care guidance is a most important nursing intervention so that activities of daily living problems can be addressed. The interventions are tailored according to the care givers' educational level and the patients' needs. CONCLUSIONS The most important findings of the study are: Patients with cerebrovascular accidents have impaired ability concerning mobility, communication and socialization and need special attention and education in order to improve daily life activities. The education of hemiplegic patients with informative intervention, awareness and support improves their functional ability. We have observed that the improvement in functional ability after educational intervention for daily life activities and especially mobility, communication and socialization are not dependent on the patient's sex, age or educational level. It is possible that other factors, not assessed in our study are related to the functional ability of cerebrovascular accident patients to improve their capability and gain in independence. Given that the educational intervention and re-education can improve their movement ability and communication level of hemiplegic patients there is urgent need for Health Care Professionals to intervene early and systemically assess the implementation of re-education and rehabilitation for improving the functional abilities of hemiplegic individuals.

Keywords: Stroke,  family,  education,  rehabilitation care giving