There were 2,600 attendees at the World Stroke Congress held in Montreal last week (October 16-20, 2018), which I attended. All but a handful were doctors, scientists, therapists and administrators of scientific organizations around the world. The handful were the survivors, the “real” clients. For four days this very diverse group focused primarily on new approaches and research for the treatment of stroke – prevention and recovery. All good!
I was honored to have been given a speaking part in what are called Short Communications, as well as an E-Poster. I therefore had two different times to present. I viewed the short communications as essentially a Ted talk where you communicate the essence of your thoughts in a very short time. I used my poster presentations to reinforce the speech. We recorded the speech which will be on our You Tube channel.
My presentation focused on two things – a message that recovery is a life-long journey, not one year or six months as we survivors are often told, and secondly, a way to implement the recovery journey – my 9 Pillars of Stroke Victor Recovery. It is important to note that these messages are not theoretical, but real based on mine, and many other survivors’ real-life experiences.
The 9 Pillars are a world-class initiative I created to coherently explain stroke recovery maximization from a survivor perspective. The Pillars lay-out a roadmap from initial hospitalization and depression mitigation to recovery opportunities, many of which are either non-traditional or not well known. Frankly, some are pooh-poohed by traditional practitioners for lack of scientific evidence.
Just as a hint of coming attractions I will be adding a 10th Pillar to the chart. Listening to other speakers at the sessions I thought there was need to add one additional Pillar – Environmental and Family Caregiver Support. This, and the first 9 Pillars will be discussed in future posts.
The graphic shows the roadmap to which our Foundation offers coaching on how, where when to access the various opportunities. Please contact us at info@StrokeRF.org.
