Abstract
Purpose: To manage social roles is a challenging part of self-management post-stroke. This study explored how stroke survivors act as role managers with their spouses in the context of everyday activities.
Method: Two stroke survivors with a first time stroke living at home with a spouse were included. Data were generated through participant observations at their own environment at 3, 6, 9, 15 and 21 months post-discharge. The narrative analysis focused on the actions of participants.
Results: Daily activities can be understood as an arena where role management and a meaningful live is negotiated and co-constructed with others. Everyday activities gave stroke survivors and their spouses insight into stroke survivors’ capacities in daily situations. This was sometimes empowering, and other times conflicting when a spouse had negative perceptions of the abilities of the stroke survivors.
Conclusion: The findings add to the current understanding of self-management and role management with regard to how these are situated in everyday activities. Daily activities can help both spouses to reflect and understand about self-management, role management and comanagement in daily life. Moreover, observing stroke survivors in everyday situations provides professionals with concrete pictures of stroke survivors’ performance and self-management in interaction with their spouses.
Self-management is a dynamic process in which individuals actively manage a chronic condition and finally live a meaningful life with a long-term chronic condition; self-management can be divided into medical, role, and emotional management; comanagement is when individuals activate resources and use the capacities of other persons to manage a situation together.
Self-management is situated in everyday activities. Everyday activities give stroke survivors ánd their partners impressions about stroke survivors’ self-management abilities post-stroke in an everyday context.
Everyday activities give stroke survivors ánd their partners an arena where role management and a meaningful life are negotiated and coconstructed through doing.
Observing stroke survivors in everyday situations provides professionals a concreter picture of stroke survivors’ self-management and comanagement with their partners than can be obtained from an informal interview.
Implications for Rehabilitation
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the people who allowed us to participate in their everyday activities post-stroke and to share their post-stroke experiences for this study.
Disclosure statement
The authors report no declarations of interest.
Funding information
This study was supported by a PhD grant from the HAN University of Applied Sciences, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.