Sparrow Neuropsychology · Vancouver

Stroke Resources

Organisations, information, and support for stroke survivors and their families in BC, Canada

These resources are oriented towards stroke survivors in British Columbia, Canada. This page brings together high-quality information, services, and support for people recovering from stroke and for the families and carers who support them. It is intended as a starting point — not a substitute for advice from your own medical team.

A stroke occurs when blood supply to part of the brain is suddenly interrupted — either by a blockage in a blood vessel (ischaemic stroke, around 85% of cases) or by bleeding into or around the brain (haemorrhagic stroke). Every minute counts during a stroke: the faster blood flow is restored, the less brain tissue is lost. In BC, approximately 7,000 people experience a stroke each year, and stroke remains one of the leading causes of adult disability in Canada. Survival rates have improved substantially over recent decades — which means more people are living with the long-term effects of stroke than ever before.

What a neuropsychological assessment can offer

After a stroke, many people notice changes in their thinking, memory, attention, language, or emotions. These changes can be subtle or profound, and they are not always easy to characterise from a bedside evaluation alone. A neuropsychological assessment provides a detailed, standardised map of cognitive functioning — identifying what has been affected, what has been preserved, and what this means for daily life and recovery.

An assessment can:

  • Map the cognitive effects of the stroke — attention, memory, language, processing speed, executive function, and visuospatial ability can all be affected depending on which part of the brain was injured; a thorough assessment examines each systematically
  • Identify preserved strengths — knowing what is intact is just as important as knowing what has changed, and informs what can be built on in rehabilitation
  • Disentangle mood from cognition — depression and anxiety after stroke are very common and can themselves impair thinking and memory; an assessment helps distinguish difficulties caused by the stroke from those arising from mood
  • Support rehabilitation planning — understanding your specific cognitive profile helps rehabilitation therapists, occupational therapists, and your medical team target the most meaningful areas and set realistic goals
  • Support return-to-work decisions — if there are questions about whether you can safely return to your role, a cognitive profile provides objective, professionally documented evidence for conversations with employers, occupational therapists, and HR
  • Support return-to-driving evaluations — neuropsychological assessment contributes objective cognitive data for occupational therapists conducting on-road driving evaluations and for discussions with ICBC about fitness to drive
  • Provide a baseline for tracking recovery — a repeat assessment after a period of rehabilitation can document cognitive change over time and inform ongoing planning
  • Assist with insurance or legal matters — where stroke has led to disability claims or legal proceedings, formal assessment provides documented, professionally validated evidence of cognitive functioning

Your GP, neurologist, or rehabilitation specialist can refer you for a neuropsychological assessment. You can also contact us directly.

Understanding stroke — the biology

The brain is one of the most metabolically active organs in the body — neurons require a continuous supply of oxygen and glucose, and cannot survive more than a few minutes without it. A stroke interrupts this supply, either by blocking a vessel (ischaemic stroke) or by bleeding into or around brain tissue (haemorrhagic stroke). The specific effects of a stroke depend on which blood vessel is affected and which brain region it supplies.

The left hemisphere of the brain is typically dominant for language — strokes here often produce aphasia (difficulty with words), as well as right-sided weakness. Right-hemisphere strokes tend to produce left-sided weakness and may cause difficulties with spatial awareness, attention to the left side of space (hemispatial neglect), and emotional processing. Strokes affecting the brainstem or cerebellum can affect coordination, balance, swallowing, and vision. Some strokes affect multiple areas.

After the initial injury, the brain has a significant — though not unlimited — capacity to reorganise itself. This neuroplasticity is the biological basis for rehabilitation: with the right practice and support, other brain regions can partially take over functions lost to the stroke. Recovery is most rapid in the first weeks to months, though meaningful improvement can continue well beyond this.

  • What is a stroke and how does it affect the brain? — Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada overview of stroke types, causes, and how damage to different brain regions produces different effects.
  • What are the different types of stroke? — Heart & Stroke Foundation explanation of ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke, including TIA (transient ischaemic attack), causes, and implications for treatment.
  • What is a TIA, and is it serious? — Stroke Association (UK) explanation of transient ischaemic attack — a serious warning sign that requires urgent evaluation even when symptoms resolve quickly.
  • How does stroke damage the brain? — Heart & Stroke Foundation Canada explanation of the brain’s hemispheres and regions, and how stroke disrupts function depending on where the damage occurs.
  • What does the research say about stroke recovery? — StrokeEngine is a McMaster University evidence-based resource summarising the research on stroke rehabilitation interventions — useful for patients and healthcare providers alike.

Cognitive problems after stroke

Because different brain regions are responsible for different abilities, the cognitive changes that follow a stroke depend on where the stroke occurred. No two strokes — and no two recoveries — are exactly alike. Some people experience significant cognitive difficulty; others experience very little; most fall somewhere between. Understanding the range of what can happen helps people make sense of their own experience.

Common cognitive changes after stroke include:

  • Attention and concentration — difficulty sustaining focus, easily distracted, problems doing more than one thing at once
  • Memory — difficulty forming new memories, forgetting recent conversations or events, trouble with names and words
  • Language — aphasia (difficulty speaking, understanding, reading, or writing) is common after left-hemisphere strokes; word-finding difficulties are particularly common and frustrating
  • Processing speed — thinking and responding more slowly than before the stroke, which can affect many other cognitive activities
  • Executive function — difficulty planning, organising, initiating tasks, or managing complex situations
  • Visuospatial abilities — difficulty judging distances, navigating, or recognising faces (more common after right-hemisphere strokes)
  • Hemispatial neglect — reduced awareness of one side of space, most often the left side after right-hemisphere strokes; the person may not notice objects or people on their neglected side

  • Post-stroke fatigue — overwhelming fatigue that is out of proportion to activity, and does not fully resolve with rest; one of the most common and disabling effects of stroke, and one of the least visible to others

  • What cognitive changes can follow a stroke? — Heart & Stroke Canada overview of the thinking, memory, and emotional changes that can follow stroke, with guidance on what helps.
  • What is post-stroke fatigue? — Stroke Association (UK) detailed explanation of post-stroke fatigue: why it happens, how it is different from ordinary tiredness, and what can help.
  • What is aphasia, and what does it feel like? — The Aphasia Institute (Toronto) is Canada’s leading aphasia organisation; their website explains aphasia: what it is, what it is not, and how it affects communication — written with insight and empathy.
  • What is hemispatial neglect? — Stroke Association (UK) explanation of hemispatial neglect (spatial neglect): what it is, how it presents, and how it is addressed in rehabilitation.
  • What is vascular cognitive impairment? — Heart & Stroke Foundation Canada explains vascular cognitive impairment — the spectrum of cognitive changes caused by stroke and cerebrovascular disease, including risk factors, symptoms, and management.

Psychological adjustment after stroke

A stroke is a sudden, often frightening event that can change a person’s life profoundly and with very little warning. The psychological response is rarely simple — it commonly involves grief, fear, frustration, anger, and uncertainty, sometimes alongside relief at having survived. Adjusting to disability, changed roles, and a new sense of vulnerability takes real time and real effort.

Post-stroke depression affects approximately one in three stroke survivors. It is not simply a reaction to changed circumstances — it also has a neurological component, arising from the disruption to brain circuits that regulate mood. This matters because it means depression after stroke is not just understandable, it is biologically driven — and it responds to treatment. Depression can impair motivation, attention, and engagement in rehabilitation, making it harder to recover. Identifying and treating it is therefore not incidental to recovery — it is part of recovery.

Anxiety is also very common, often centred on fear of a further stroke, fear of being alone, or difficulty adjusting to reduced independence. Like depression, it has both psychological and neurological components, and both respond to appropriate support.

Emotional lability — sudden, unpredictable shifts in emotion such as laughing or crying disproportionately or without clear reason — is a distinct neurological effect of stroke. It is not a sign of psychiatric illness, and understanding it for what it is can help survivors and their families cope with it.

Grief and identity — stroke can alter a person’s capacity to work, to drive, to live independently, or to maintain relationships in the same way as before. These losses — of roles, of abilities, of a sense of who one is — are real losses, and grieving them is a natural and legitimate process.

Impact on partners and families

Stroke does not only affect the person who has it. Partners, adult children, and other close family members are profoundly affected — often assuming a caring role quickly, without preparation, and sometimes without adequate support.

Partners in particular often face an abrupt shift in the relationship: a person who was an equal partner may now need significant help with personal care, communication, or daily tasks. This reversal of roles can be exhausting and disorienting. Carers of stroke survivors report high rates of depression, anxiety, and burnout — and these are often underrecognised, partly because the focus of clinical attention is naturally on the stroke survivor.

The grief a partner or family member experiences is real. In many cases it is ongoing: a partner may grieve not only the immediate losses but also the continued absence of the person they knew, the relationship they had, and the future they had planned together. This form of grief — sometimes called ambiguous loss — can be difficult to name and difficult for others to understand.

Looking after your own wellbeing as a carer is not a luxury. It directly affects your capacity to support the person you care for, and it matters in its own right.

Common concerns

People recovering from stroke — and their families — often share similar questions and worries. Some of the most common include:

  • Will I recover? Recovery after stroke is real, but its extent and pace vary considerably between individuals and depend on many factors — the size and location of the stroke, age, overall health, early rehabilitation, and motivation. Most people see the most rapid improvement in the first weeks and months, but recovery can continue for years, often in more gradual ways. Not everyone recovers fully, and adjustment to lasting change is itself a process that deserves support.
  • Could I have another stroke? This is a very common fear, and an understandable one. The risk of recurrent stroke is real but can be substantially reduced through medication, lifestyle changes, and close follow-up with your GP and neurologist. Understanding and managing vascular risk factors — blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, atrial fibrillation, smoking, and physical activity — is the single most important thing you can do.
  • Can I drive again? Driving after stroke depends on the nature and severity of the effects. In BC, your doctor is legally required to report medical conditions that may affect driving to ICBC. A formal driving evaluation by an occupational therapist may be required. A neuropsychological assessment can contribute objective cognitive data to this process.
  • Can I return to work? This depends on the demands of your role and the nature of your difficulties. Many people return to work after stroke, sometimes with accommodations; others need extended time or a change of role. An occupational therapist and your rehabilitation team can help assess readiness, and neuropsychological assessment can provide objective evidence for conversations with employers.
  • Am I going to develop dementia? Stroke — particularly when there are multiple small strokes — does increase the risk of vascular cognitive impairment and vascular dementia. This is not inevitable, and the same vascular risk factor management that reduces stroke recurrence also reduces this risk. A neuropsychological assessment can provide an objective baseline against which future cognitive changes can be measured.
  • Why am I so emotional? Emotional changes after stroke — including depression, anxiety, and emotional lability — are very common and have both psychological and neurological causes. They are not signs of weakness or character flaws, and many respond well to support.
  • Why do I feel so tired all the time? Post-stroke fatigue is a recognised neurological consequence of stroke, not simply the result of doing too much or being deconditioned. It is often invisible to others and can be deeply frustrating. Management strategies exist and can help.
  • My family member has changed — they seem different. Personality and behaviour changes after stroke are common, particularly after strokes affecting the frontal lobes or certain right-hemisphere regions. Changes in mood, motivation, inhibition, or behaviour are neurologically based and are not simply the person choosing to be difficult. Understanding this can help families respond with patience rather than frustration.

Mental health support in BC

Both stroke survivors and their carers experience significantly elevated rates of depression and anxiety. Support is available — and seeking it is a sign of self-awareness, not weakness.

Peer support

Connecting with others who understand what you are going through — whether you are a stroke survivor or a carer — can be profoundly helpful. The Stroke Recovery Association BC runs peer support programs specifically for stroke survivors.

Counsellors and psychologists

A psychologist has completed a doctorate in psychology (PhD or PsyD) and is registered with the College of Psychologists of BC. Psychologists provide therapy, can diagnose mental health conditions, and are qualified to conduct formal psychological assessments — useful when there are questions about cognition alongside emotional wellbeing.

A Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) typically holds a master’s degree in counselling and is registered with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC). RCCs provide therapy and are well-suited for working through grief, anxiety, depression, adjustment difficulties, and the emotional demands of living with the effects of stroke.

Both psychologists and RCCs can provide effective, evidence-based therapy. A psychologist may be the better fit if you also need a formal assessment alongside therapy.

To find a psychologist or counsellor in BC:

Most extended health benefit plans cover a number of counselling or psychology sessions up to a set dollar amount per year. Check with your benefits provider or HR advisor before your first appointment.

Psychiatrists

A psychiatrist is a medical doctor (MD) who has completed specialist training in mental health. Like psychologists, psychiatrists can diagnose mental health conditions — and unlike psychologists and counsellors, they can also prescribe medication. They typically work alongside a GP or therapist rather than replacing them.

Post-stroke depression and anxiety often have a neurological component alongside the psychological one — which means they may respond particularly well to medication, in combination with therapy. Just as one would not hesitate to treat blood pressure that has risen out of range, there is no reason to leave a mood system that has been disrupted — in part by direct brain injury — untreated. The decision to try medication is personal and warrants a proper conversation, but it is always worth having, particularly if mood difficulties have been present for some time.

To access a psychiatrist in BC, ask your family doctor or neurologist for a referral. You can also call HealthLink BC (8-1-1) for guidance on mental health services in your region.

Other BC mental health resources

Living after stroke

Support groups in BC

Peer support — whether in-person or online — can make a significant difference for stroke survivors and their families. Being around people who understand your experience from the inside is something clinical care alone cannot replicate.

Podcasts

  • Strokecast — Hosted by Bill Yates, a stroke survivor and tech professional, Strokecast covers stroke recovery, rehabilitation research, and the lived experience of stroke through interviews with survivors, clinicians, and researchers. One of the most consistently high-quality stroke podcasts available.
  • All in the Mind — BBC Radio 4 — Long-running, award-winning BBC Radio 4 podcast hosted by psychologist Claudia Hammond, exploring mental health, neuroscience, and brain conditions in depth — with episodes relevant to stroke, cognitive recovery, and emotional wellbeing.
  • All In The Mind — ABC Radio National — ABC Australia’s weekly podcast on the mind, brain, and behaviour — from memory and cognition to mental health and neurological conditions — one of ABC’s most internationally downloaded shows.

Stroke organisations in BC and Canada

In British Columbia

  • Who supports stroke survivors in BC? — The Stroke Recovery Association BC is the provincial charity dedicated to helping stroke survivors rebuild their lives, offering peer support, stroke clubs, and community resources across BC. Heart & Stroke BC also provides support for stroke survivors in the province.

Across Canada

International

If you are interested in a neuropsychological assessment to better understand cognitive difficulties related to stroke, please contact us or submit a referral.