Latest News

Stroke Recovery

Stroke Recovery: What quality of life can a patient expect? The quality of life changes when you feel empowered and have the tools to deal with your stroke. How do we at Birkdale Neuro Rehab Centre assist in this journey? Stroke is devastating, the disabling effects of stroke are much more than just loss of movements on one side of the body. Emotionally: Feeling vulnerable and not being the same person you were before stroke. Losing your identity and your role in the family, dealing with this new situation and finding it hard to manage people’s questions and expectations. Sensation: […]

The Story of a Young Person With Stroke

This is a story about a young person who has had a stroke. Susan came to us six months after her stroke. She was very nervous and new to the world of rehab. With no point of reference she did not know what to expect, could not imagine how she might change and recover some of her abilities. Quite naturally she wanted her old life back and did not like what had happened to her body and mind. Emotionally she was very fragile. She could not find the words to describe how she felt. She had lost her ability with […]

Developing my practice as a neuro physiotherapist (part 1)

It’s been just nearly two months since I started work at the Birkdale Neuro Rehabilitation Centre and the time has just flown by. I would like to thank the team, management and clients for providing me with such a warm welcome. When I was asked to contribute to the website blog a couple of weeks ago I knew exactly what I wanted to write about in my first blog entry- the continued development of my knowledge and skills as a neuro physiotherapist. As a profession, we are nurtured to be reflective about our practice in order develop and hone our […]

“New Approaches to Visual Rehabilitation for Cortical Blindness: Outcomes and Putative Mechanisms”

“Cortical blindness is a chronic loss of vision following damage to the primary visual cortex (V1) or its postchiasmal afferents. Cortically blind subjects demonstrate spontaneous oculomotor adaptations to their deficits that can be further improved by saccadic localization training. However, saccadic training does not improve visual sensitivity in the blind field. In contrast, recent studies by a number of independent groups suggest that localized, repetitive perceptual training can improve visual sensitivity in the blind field.” This is an exciting paper for me as a neuro physiotherapist. I have been working with a child who developed cortical blindness due to epilepsy. […]