This is my life: Inspiring thoughts from stroke survivors

Each year, 700,000 people in the United States suffer a stroke. The third leading killer and leading cause of disability in the U.S., stroke and its risk factors disproportionately affect minority populations. Few interventions have been designed to focus on TIA and mild stroke patients, who most often have short in-hospital stays, hasty discharges, and poor vascular risk perception associated with their resolved or minimal deficit. The film, “This is My Life: Inspiring Thoughts from Stroke Survivors” is a narrative tool used in the Discharge Educational Strategies for Reduction of Vascular Events (DESERVE) study, an innovative discharge behavioral intervention aimed at secondary stroke prevention and risk factor control across different race/ethnic groups. On-camera interviews featuring 15 stroke survivors were conducted in English and Spanish to elicit stories focused on survivorship, hope, improved risk knowledge, medication adherence, and patient-physician communication. Our research team worked with documentary filmmakers to produce English and Spanish videos, with short versions to be watched by patients at discharge and full-length versions to be taken home. The film captures stroke survivors describing their organic personal experiences as they overcame physical, mental, and emotional challenges of recovery and relied on sources of motivation and support. While both versions maintain a focus on DESERVE's three themes of risk perception, medication adherence. and patient-physician communication, cultural differences emerged in outlook on recovery. The Spanish version portrays themes on fate and spiritual recovery and the English version touches more on self-determination. The film serves to positively reinforce the patient's intrinsic motivation to change their behavior by providing them a sense of self-actualization and self-efficacy. Such culturally sensitive approaches to empowering patients at discharge through incorporating narrative in interventions may be critical for motivating long-term behavior change and risk reduction in other chronic disease patients.