There is a great potential benefit participating in support groups for stroke survivors, yet many are not aware of the existence of these groups. This article will thus try to shed some light on support groups and their activities.

What are support groups?

Firstly, what is a support group? Generally speaking, a support group is a group of people sharing a common characteristic who provide non-professional help and advice to each other. The help may take on several forms -also depending on the common characteristic of the support group- including sharing personal experiences, serving as motivators, providing relevant information, developing social networks and just being available to listen, provide understanding and share frustration with the other members. Support groups normally meet monthly, bi-monthly or weekly.

How can you benefit from stroke support groups?

Support groups provide stroke survivors, their friends and family with an excellent opportunity to meet with other stroke survivors as well as caregivers to exchange experience and information. Building a network of people knowing what you are going through will not only help you gather useful advice regarding stroke and your daily activities to achieve full recovery; it can also help you preventing future strokes, assist you in identifying the best local resources and allow you to receive support.

Furthermore, by meeting regularly to share experiences and provide (receive) feedback, members inspire one another to overcome major challenges. Motivation is one of the key ingredients for the successfully completion of a rehabilitation program. Also, given the isolating nature of a stroke, stroke support groups can be an excellent place to socialize, make new friends and have fun. Following a stroke physical and emotional difficulties often arise and relationships and friends are lost. Stroke support groups can help stroke survivors adjust to this new situation and create a meaningful life by joining in a caring environment among friendly people sharing similar problems, who thus understand what you are going through. Finally, support groups are an excellent way to help others that are in the same situation as you. Consequently, we can conclude that stroke support groups promote good health as well as better quality of life.

Online stroke support groups

Stroke support groups are available almost everywhere. Still can’t find a group near you? Don’t worry they exist online as well. Online stroke support groups besides bring another dimension into support groups as their reach is only limited by people’s internet access and you thus significantly increase the likelihood of finding someone in a situation just like yours. This could be of huge advantage as it would allow you to receive advice and feedback particularly relevant for your situation. But the “online benefit” is not restricted to that. Contrary to normal real-life discussions, discussion on an internet forum gets saved and can be made available for other users and thus ensure that knowledge and experience doesn’t get forgotten as time goes by. Moreover, having such information available online makes it accessible by a much larger patient/ caregiver group and it easily allows for it to be tied to reliable medical resources. Online support groups is also an excellent opportunity to give it a try if you are not convinced this is something for you yet. Here you find some stroke support groups available on the internet:

• StrokeNetwork.org
• MDJunction.com
• Boards.WebMD.com

Want to know more?

Under you will find some links to sites with more information about stroke support groups, covering everything from locating a group in your neighborhood to setting-up your own support group.

Read More:
StrokeCenter.org
Stroke.org
StrokeAssociation.org