Many conditions, such as strokes and cerebral hemorraging, often result in “prognostic symptoms”, which are after-effects that can linger in a patient for quite a while.

Physical therapists at hospitals play a vital role in planning for the physical and mental recovery of such patients.

However, there are many cases in which making a full recovery before being discharged is unrealistic due to prognostic symptoms.

In these cases, it becomes important to devise a home environment in which the patient can live comfortably in spite of their prognostic symptoms.

At my hospital, we conduct something called a “home evaluation”. This term refers to a home visit whose purpose is to determine whether or not a patient with prognostic symptoms can live safely and comfortably in their own home. Rehabilitation staff visit the patient directly in their home and conduct the evaluation together with them and their family.

As a result of these visits, we then decide on measures such as installing hand rails, enhancing the accessibility of bathrooms, and eliminating the difference in level between rooms. After these modifications are finished, we ask the patient to test them.

Through this procedure, patients are able to start practicing all the functions they need to live their lives on their own, and they begin to reconstruct their home lives.

The scope of rehabilitation therapy, which extends even to home evaluation and assistance, is truly wide.


– Umi Oda
– English by Chay Schiller