Stroke patients often fail to resume full lives, even if they make a good physical recovery, and social and leisure pursuits show a particular decline. The usual goals of rehabilitation are mobility and independence in self-care, but recovery in a broader sense may be impeded if health professionals concentrate exclusively on these. Leisure has been shown to be closely associated with life satisfaction and would be a worthwhile, and now measurable, goal of rehabilitation. Elderly people show a decline in leisure activity which has been studied extensively and may provide a useful model for the more rapid decline seen in stroke patients. Further research is needed to confirm the finding that specialized occupational therapy can be effective in raising leisure activity, and to show whether this will translate into improved psychological well-being.