A NOTE TO CAREGIVERS
Family and close friends play a key role in a patient’ s recovery. You can be your loved one’ s eyes and ears, advocate for good care, and encourage and support their healing. Many survivors make a nearly full recovery, with some residual deficits, but the process is long, taking weeks, months, or even years. Therefore, supporting a survivor requires patience and understanding.
Once your loved one returns home from the hospital or rehabilitation facility, the hard work begins. With some survivors, deficits can alter their personality and temperament so accepting this“ new” person is the first step in helping him or her recover and move ahead. Often the deficits might not be obvious at first, but nonetheless impact your loved one’ s functioning and the ability to interact with others at home, the workplace, or other social settings.
These will help with the recovery process:
• Set small, achievable goals for you and the survivor.
• Be aware of your loved one’ s strengths and weaknesses, physically and cognitively, so you can prevent them from adding stress to your lives.
• Seek therapy, whether individual and / or group therapy, to work through your own emotions.
• Join a brain aneurysm support group( find locations at bafound. org) or connect with others on the Brain Aneurysm Foundation’ s online support community( bafsupport. org).
• Develop a plan, reward yourself, and always talk to one another.
• Find time to have fun together.
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