Hello! My name is Sarah Blanton and I am a physical therapist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. My research involves caregiving and stroke rehabilitation. Our current study, CARE-CITE-Gait (CAREpartner Collaborative Integrated Therapy for Gait) is exploring how to involve the family to help stroke survivors improve walking and balance after stroke.
Family members (“carepartners”) can play a valuable role in recovery after a loved one has a stroke. However, this caregiving role can often increase feelings of burden, anxiety, depression and isolation. We want to learn how clinicians can better involve the family into rehabilitation therapy to help the stroke survivor. We use the term carepartner because you are not just a care “giver” but a true “partner” in the care of your loved one.
In our early work, we created a workbook for families to learn to work together with stroke survivors during arm therapy. We found this information about stroke recovery helped family members have less depressive symptoms and family disagreements about how to help the stroke survivor. By including the carepartner in therapy, we hope to improve the outcomes of the whole family after stroke.
Now we have put the information from the workbook into a web-based program. Family members (carepartners) can easily review the material from home. We also added short demonstration videos. We believe that this information will help family members learn how to support the stroke survivor to improve walking and balance related activities at home.
The goal of this research is to better understand how involving the family in rehabilitation therapy can help both stroke survivors and their carepartners. We would like to develop programs that may serve as models of care for all families with a loved one going through rehabilitation after stroke.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or are interested in taking part in this study, please contact Dr. Blanton.
Office Phone: (404) 712-2222