HARMONIE ET DIVERGENCES DES COUPLES. SUR LES REPERCUSSIONS FAMILIALES ET SOCIALES APRES LA SURVENUE D’UN ACCIDENT VASCULAIRE CEREBRAL
HARMONY AND DIVERGENCES IN COUPLES. FAMILY AND SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS TWO YEARS POST-STROKE

Summary/Abstract: Two years post-stroke, the harmony and the differences between the declarations of the survivors and their spouses are analyzed among 51 couples living in Luxembourg agreed to be interviewed at home. “Stroke caused serious turnovers in my family” and “at the beginning, nobody knew how to behave towards the stroke-affected person”; these repercussions are, for the couples, undeniable. Other effects affect them: “The character of the stroke-affected person changed completely since the event”, and they consider that “the most difficult was on the psychological plan”. Despite the strokerelated upheavals, travels remain a subject that matters. Needs of “information concerning financial aid” and “assistance to make administrative requests, allowances or demands of healthcare and socio-educational services” are common priorities. They are attentive to the fact that “services and equipment supplies are of good quality” and provided at “suitable time”. Compared to caregivers, more survivors recognized that “after stroke, one feels depreciated”. This difference between the attitudes of the patients and the spouses expresses the stigmatization of the handicap from which suffer survivors confronted with an image that is not longer the one they had before the event. With the ageing of the population, a couple-based perspective in guiding supportive home-rehabilitation should be thought. New prospects of research in medical sociology could be developed.

• Details
• Contents