"He has settled in to his routine"

When my dad had a severe stroke and was taken into hospital, it was a huge shock for the whole family. At the beginning, the doctors were fantastic and kept up updated at all times, we were allowed to visit almost anytime, and we felt positive about Dads recovery after he became medically stable. 

When he got a little better, he was moved to the stroke ward for rehabilitation. We did not have a good first impression of the ward. Visiting times were very restricted, when we did visit we saw no nurses or doctors who could update us on how dad was, and he was still unable to speak so couldn’t even tell us himself. We felt that it was very isolating for him and caused us a lot of worry about his mental health and ours. We spoke to the nurses and it did seem like they took our concerns on board. 

Now that dad has been there a while, we have gotten to know the staff a lot better, he has settled in to his routine more and things are better. The physiotherapy and speech therapy he receives has improved his outlook immensely and we feel that the staff make a big effort to speak to us and make us feel involved. We have started a notebook  which we left next to dads bed so that they can write anything down that we need to know, just incase we don’t see any staff members while we visit. However, we still only see nurses and doctors do not write in the notepad with updates which can be frustrating. 

Visiting times have also been relaxed and we can enjoy lots of time with Dad and we are able to go with him to physio and speech therapy. I do appreciate the creativity and consideration most of the staff put into their everyday care and when they take time out just to cheer him up when they know he needs it. It’s much nicer to feel like we are helping him get better rather than feeling a bit helpless and in the way when we are there, which is unfortunately still the case some days.

There’s a long way to go and although not every day is a good day, we will be with him every step regardless.