The care you receive in hospital after a cardiac arrest can be exceptional. What comes after discharge is often a different story. Many survivors find themselves sent home with little more than a prescription and a follow-up appointment — at precisely the moment when the reality of what happened begins to sink in.
Self-help isn’t about managing alone. It’s about taking an active role in your own recovery, complementing whatever clinical support you receive with tools, connections, and communities that help you move forward at your own pace. This section brings together the resources our members return to again and again.
What’s in This Section
Brain Training — Cognitive difficulties are common after cardiac arrest. This page explores ways to challenge and support your brain during recovery, helping to address memory, concentration, and mental sharpness.
Contact Your Saviours — Most survivors have no memory of their cardiac arrest, or of the people who helped them survive. Reaching out to the paramedics, bystanders, or hospital staff who were there can be a meaningful and healing step — and for many survivors, it marks a real turning point in their recovery.
Expressive Writing — Writing about your experience can be a surprisingly powerful way to process difficult emotions. This page introduces expressive writing as a therapeutic tool and explains how survivors and co-survivors can use it to make sense of what they’ve been through.
Giving Back — Many survivors find that helping others who are earlier in their recovery journey brings a profound sense of purpose. This page explores the different ways you can contribute — and why giving back is so often a meaningful part of your own healing.
Meet Up — Meeting other survivors and co-survivors face to face is something our members consistently describe as one of the most important things they’ve done. Whether it’s a regional gathering or a national event, there is something genuinely irreplaceable about being in a room full of people who truly get it.
Mindfulness — Mindfulness practice has strong evidence behind it for supporting recovery from trauma and reducing anxiety. This page explains what mindfulness is, why it’s particularly relevant after cardiac arrest, and how to get started.
Virtual Fitness Clubs — Staying active after a cardiac arrest can feel daunting, but regular movement is one of the most beneficial things survivors can do for both physical and mental wellbeing. Our virtual fitness clubs offer a supportive, SCA-aware space to get moving alongside others who understand.
The Power of Peer Support
There is something that no clinical leaflet, however well-written, can replicate — the experience of talking to someone who has been exactly where you are. Someone who knows what it feels like to wake up not knowing what happened to them, to feel afraid of their own heartbeat, or to watch a loved one go through the long haul of recovery.
Our community of thousands of survivors and co-survivors is built on that understanding. People who “get it” — because they’ve lived it. Whether through our online groups, regional meetups, or our annual conference, connection with the SCA UK community is perhaps the most powerful form of self-help there is.
Join us — and find out what it feels like to finally be understood.