Rehabilitation is the therapy and activities you do that drive your recovery. It helps you to re-learn or find new ways of doing things that were affected by your stroke.

Rehabilitation helps your brain change. If part of your brain has been injured, a different part can learn to take over its job. This is called neuroplasticity.

 It takes a lot of work to make this happen. You’ll need to do exercises and practice doing things over and over. Talk to your therapists about tasks you can do when they are not around.

There are different types of rehabilitation services. It depends on what’s best for you and what’s available in your area.

To decide how much and what type of therapy you get, your rehabilitation team will consider whether you’re able to:

• improve enough to make a difference to your daily life
• manage the time spent in a therapy session
• work with the team to set goals and be prepared to reach them.

You and your support crew should be actively involved in making these choices and in your ongoing rehabilitation.

Make sure you also get appropriate rest, as it’s common to feel tired after a stroke. Sometimes you may experience fatigue that doesn’t improve with rest, so talk to your therapists about scheduling your rehabilitation for times when you are feeling most alert.