Using values to help with stroke recovery

• Importance, worth or usefulness of something
• Your own judgment of what is important in life
• Everyone is different
• What are yours?

What is important to you? These are the things that shape your life but can change depending on what stage of life you are at.

• How do you think values could be helpful in your recovery?
• How do you think values could be helpful for your family friends?
• What areas are you already living to your values?

Values can help you identify goals that you may want to work on in your rehab. This will help motivate you when it is helping you do something important to you. For example, you want to be able to get out of the house so you can socialise with your friends again.

Values promote a sense of meaning in life. They cannot be ‘achieved’ in the same sense as a goal. but offer us a guide when trying to make decisions.

They might help you to stick with some difficulties  of recovery, for example, sticking with speech and language therapy if communicating with your family is something you hold dear.

They can also help you realise what is important to you and engage in more activities that fit with your values. This can help you find more meaning and adjust to changes.

Being aware of your values could help you know what you want to focus your recovery on and pass this on to your care team and wider social network.

Take a few minutes to consider your personal values

• How will you spend more time living in your values?
• You could use a questionnaire like the Valued Living Questionnaire or the wheel of life template if you need some structure to think about what matters most to you.

• Understanding what we mean by values.
• Needs that values meet within us.
• How can we continue to get those needs met by adapting.

• Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service: Refer yourself
• Touchstone: Inspiring communities, transforming lives
• Leeds Mind
• Live Well Leeds: Referrals