Issue: Strokes on
the rise among younger adults. OT can help!
The majority of strokes are
occurring in older adults over the age of 50, but the number of people under 50
having strokes is increasing. The article states that about 10% of all strokes
occur in people between 18 and 50 years old. This article describes the
experience of a 41-year-old man who suffered from a intracerebral hemorrhage.
Articles like this help to educate
the public on what it is really like to have a stroke. The individual in the
article states, “You don’t think of things you do until you cant do them. You
basically have to start all over again. I mean, you retrain your brain to use
your limbs. You retrain your brain to remember. You retrain everything. It’s
pretty devastating.”
You can find the article and podcast here:
Service Delivery:
The service delivery to address
this issue involves both the health care and educational systems. Educating the
public on the risk factors that they can control would be a very important
piece in reducing the number of strokes in young adults under 50. There are
some risk factors that are uncontrollable such as age, gender, and ethnicity.
However, the other factors can all be controlled. If we are able to educate the
public on the importance of living a healthy lifestyle, we may be able to
reduce the prevalence of strokes in younger adults under the age of 50.
The
health care system is also involved in the service delivery of the proposed
policy because we would have to ensure that physicians and other health
professionals would be willing to adopt these policies and actually assess for
risk factors and educate their patients on how to reduce these risks. The
health care system has the potential to change the lives of their patients!
Providing free physicals to assess risk factors for stroke would be a great way
to ensure that everyone is able to learn their risk for developing a stroke
despite their financial situation.
The most common type of stroke
occurring in adults under 50 is ischemic strokes. Ischemic strokes are caused
by a blockage in the blood vessel. The article quotes a vascular neurologist
who believes that the most likely underlying cause for the increasing incidence
and prevalence in young adults under 50 is obesity. This also goes back to the
healthcare system that parents should be educated by their children’s
pediatricians on how to reduce risks for obesity. As childhood obesity has
increased, these children grow up to be adults who if still obese, are at a
great risk for stroke. As health professionals, we need to do what we can from
the beginning to help prevent childhood obesity.
Policy:
There should be a policy made so that
all individuals are required to get a physical at least once per year. This
physical should screen for stroke risk factors such as high blood pressure,
diabetes, obesity and lipid disorders. When a person has any of these risk
factors, they should be educated on lifestyle factors that can be changed such
as eating habits, physical activity, limiting or quitting smoking and drinking
as well as medical risk factors that can be addresses such as high blood
pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and poor circulation. To make this policy
even better and more universal, the physicals should be free to all
individuals. By offering free physicals, people will be more willing to get
them and will not have to choose between a physical and something else they
feel is more important to purchase. This policy could also incorporate an
education component. If an individual is found to have any of these risk
factors, they and their family should be educated on the signs of a stroke so
that 9-1-1 can be called sooner. If this policy were put into place, I would hope
that the number of strokes amongst young adults under the age of 50 would stop
increasing and actually start to decline.
Data:
The data that would be needed to
support this policy is the statistic that the number of young adults under 50 experiencing
strokes is rising. In addition, the statistic that 80% of strokes can be
prevented with lifestyle changes to reduce risk factors needs to be brought to
the table. If a study was done in order to prove that education on prevention
and signs of a stroke could help to decrease the amount of strokes and decrease
the amount of time before 9-1-1 is called after witnessing a loved one’s
stroke, this policy would be more supported. In order to educate the public on
risk factors, there will need to be data to support the claims that these
medical and lifestyle factors are indeed risk factors for having a stroke.
Implications for OT:
Occupational therapy will be
affected as we will begin to see more young adults suffering from strokes than
ever before. Even though the majority of strokes occur in the older adult
population, this will still have an impact on occupational therapy.
Occupational therapists can work on advocating for the importance of education
of the young adult population.
While some may think that because
these individuals are young, they will be resilient and recovery quickly, this
may not always be the case. Recovery will be difficult for anyone and these
young adults are more likely to be raising children and have other
responsibilities that are no longer possible to fulfill. A stroke changes a person’s life completely.
This drastic change in independence and function has the potential to lead to
depression and other mental health issues.
As OTs, we have the power to make
changes in peoples lives. Lifestyle redesign is “a treatment approach that has
been shows to improve health and wellness by preventing and managing chronic
conditions through building healthier lifestyles.” OTs can work with patients
to redesign their lives so that they can acquire health-promoting habits and
routines in their every day lives.
In addition, we can be training our
clients and their families about FAST. FAST can help people to remember the
warning signs of a stroke and recognize that their loved one is having a stroke
and call 9-1-1 sooner. It has been shown that the faster an individual arrives
to the hospital after a stroke the more likely they are to have a better
recovery.
F= FACE. Ask the person to smile.
Does one side of the face droop?
A= ARMS. Ask the person to raise
both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
S= SPEECH. Ask the person to repeat
a simple phrase. Is their speech slurred or strange?
T=TIME. If you observe any of these
signs, call 9-1-1 immediately. Note the
time of the first symptom.
Additional Resources
http://www.stroke.org/understand-stroke/recognizing-stroke/act-fast
No comments:
Post a Comment