Communication key with stroke survivors

SUN CITY – Sun City resident and (ret.) speech pathologist Phyllis Wit spends half the year in her Sun City Huntley home and the other half in her Sun City Palm Desert California home. One thing she shares between the two locations is her Stroke Survivors Support Group.

The Stroke Survivors Support Group is a free-to-join group led by Wit for stroke survivors or stroke survivors’ friends or family members living in Sun City.

While an active speech pathologist, Wit specialized in aphasia, which is the condition that follows a stroke, in which the survivor loses his/her communicative abilities.

Wit started the Stroke Survivors Support Group in Sun City Palm Desert about ten years ago while working for the non-for-profit Palm Springs Stroke Recovery Center.

“I found out that most of the people I was working with came from Sun City in Palm Desert,” Wit said.

Wit decided to start the group in Palm Desert to save people the trip from Palm Desert to Palm Springs, which is a twenty-minute drive. Sun City Palm Desert, Wit said, gave her a room and all the publicity she needed to start the group there. It was very successful.

Wit said that the Stroke Survivors Support Group “creates an atmosphere of friendship, warmth, the ability for people to meet other people who are in the same situation as they are or similar situations. The support is also in companionship, in the knowledge of other people[‘s circumstances]. They can socialize.”

Wit said socializing is a key implement in the recovery for a stroke survivor because stroke survivors have tendencies to draw inward and become introverted.

“They [stroke survivors] need to meet people,” Wit said.

At the group, Wit provides reading material on strokes, as well as refreshments, which aid as tools in helping group members socialize and communicate with one another.

Wit also encourages stroke survivors who feel they don’t need support to attend the Stroke Survivors Support Group to show their support for others.

When Wit and her husband bought their second Sun City home in Huntley about five years ago, she brought the Stroke Survivors Support Group with her and has conducted it here ever since but for the last year.

Wit was recently approached by a daughter of a Sun City resident to reestablish the stroke survivors support group so her mother, who recently suffered a stroke, could attend. Wit agreed and was given permission by Citizens Bank to host the group there once she knew the number of people who would attend, which is why Wit is currently publicizing her support group to the community with this message:

“In many situations, survivors go through formal therapy for a limited amount of time. Sometimes, however, Medicare restrictions signal an end to therapy even though the patient still has a need for on-going support. At times like this, in spite of the support of a loving family, they may feel abandoned when their therapy comes to an end. Stroke Survivors Support Group acts as a safety net. It will give survivors a chance to share their concerns, fears, as well as successes.”

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