Tutorial Six

Stroke Foundation New Zealand

This website is about people with a similar injury where they can learn more in depth information about strokes, meet new people who have suffered from strokes, and gain support from people and peers that have had the same trauma happen to them. The site makes a lot of information available to the public, such as stroke forums, how to manage a stroke, learning how to tell the signs of an oncoming stroke, and tips and traps of salt reduction.

American Heart Association

This site has tests that you can take to see for yourself whether you are living healthily enough and  to measure that you are taking all the steps to avoid suffering a stroke. There are also fact sheets available to print off and keep. The main page contains links to information about healthy living, losing weight, stress management, and nutrition (including fats and oils information). If you are a smoker there are also some tips on how to give it up. There is information on understanding blood pressure and warning signs of heart failure.

Stroke Foundation

The Stroke Foundation Australia contains a wealth of knowledge on things such as: what is a stroke; how to prevent a stroke; how to tell if someone is having a stroke and what to do; and information on life after a stroke. There is a forum that people can post their stories or questions on. This website also has a test to take to see if you are in the right track to a healthy lifestyle. There is research shown from each year, starting from 2008.

On all three websites there is information on how to contact them and how people can contribute by donating money, donating cars, and fundraising and passing the money on. Another way of giving  to these foundations and associations is to give your own time by volunteering, joining into fundraising events, or even getting businesses into doing a fun walk to raise awareness of the cause and fundraising at the same time.

Consider material presented in the online package

People generally choose to contribute to the community because everyone knows someone who has suffered from a stroke and want to help in some shape or form. But people who have suffered from a stroke can branch out to others who have suffered the same and help them bring that person's life back to them; giving them the support and understanding of what a stroke victim goes through, and how their life may be affected after a stroke. These sites help individuals who have suffered from strokes by giving them confidence and the understanding of what they have been through, how it happened and how to prevent it.

Without such a strong community, people would have a harder time rehabilitating from a stroke; this minimises occupational deprivation. These individuals within the online community understand that occupational disruption has occurred after suffering from such a traumatic experience and are therefore in a better position to help. These communities assist stroke victims to attain a life as normal as possible after suffering their stroke, all part of maintaining a smooth occupational transition from their life before to their life after their stroke. The communities do this by providing information on what life will be like, personal experiences, and articles on what stroke victims can do to make the transition as easy as possible.

The benefits of these websites are that there is lot of information about strokes, how to avoid having another, what life is like and much more. However, because of the vast amount of information available I found it is so easy to get lost on the website and became bombarded by the information, which could be quite a frightening experience for someone who has just suffered a trauma such as this. Another thing I had difficulty with was doing a test to see if  I was on the right type of diet and had a healthy life style. The units used in the questions were all in pounds and I had no idea of the amount of proper food intake as I don’t weigh my food. That aside, I learnt heaps on each website and would encourage others to use it.