title: Home-making after stroke. A qualitative study among Dutch stroke survivors.
abstract: Stroke survivors may suffer from physical limitations as well as cognitive and behavioural difficulties. Many survivors work on their recovery in a rehabilitation clinic with the aim to return to their own home again. Since full recovery is often not feasible, they face the challenge of coming to terms with lasting effects of the stroke and of giving meaning to their home place again. Based on in-depth interviews with stroke survivors, we discuss the meaning of the home with respect to changed post-stroke identities. Our findings show how, for many participants, a formerly comfortable home becomes a space of struggle. Formerly stable bodily routines become time-consuming and demanding, reciprocal relationships with significant others change, often becoming unbalanced dependence. In conclusion, each stroke survivor faces a different struggle to accommodate a changed self in a house that does not feel like home anymore. These findings imply that stroke rehabilitation services need to address the individual and everyday challenges that stroke survivors and their families face at home, to improve their sense of home and well-being.
authors.affiliation: Population Research Centre, Urban and Regional Studies Institute, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: l.b.meijering@rug.nl.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meijering
authors.affiliation: Center for Rehabilitation, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Christa S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Nanninga
authors.affiliation: Center for Rehabilitation, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ant T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Lettinga
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D036301:Qualitative Research; D020521:Stroke / Q000523:psychology*; D017741:Survivors
keywords: Home; Identity; Qualitative methodology; Stroke; The Netherlands