Ethics, Family Caregivers, and Stroke

Social participation of relatives post-stroke: the role of rehabilitation and related ethical issues

“…Thus 17 articles met the inclusion criteria and were retained. One was a randomised clinical trial [14], seven were descriptive studies [7,8,10,12,13,16,17], three were issue papers [9,18,19], one was a clinical commentary [20], three were literature reviews [2,21,22] and two were clinical guidelines [15,23]. Approximately 41% (n ¼ 7) addressed ethical issues, 59% (n ¼ 10) the role of rehabilitation and 29% (n ¼ 5) relatives' social participation.…”

“…In fact, this is now a key component of recommended best practices for stroke care [1] but they are not explicit about what this rehabilitation should consist concretely of. Health professionals seem to think it is less important to help the family of a person with stroke than the client him or herself [8,9]. Each family's experience is different but all face challenges.…”

“…Each family's experience is different but all face challenges. The home support and care provided by families make an enormous contribution to achieving the goals of the healthcare system, such as reducing the time spent in hospital and avoiding institutionalisation [9]. However, families seem to have been ignored in the field of biomedical ethics, which advocates for intervening with the client [9].…”

Health Literacy Skills in Relatives? Speech: A Canadian Case-Study

“…Various health contexts would greatly benefit in being perceived by healthcare professionals as opportunities to improve health-related skills [12]. Adopting a family-centered approach post-stroke represents one of these opportunities [1]. Neglecting to take into account the level of HL of patients and relatives while developing participation strategies could contribute to maintain inequities in access to health services by favoring individuals with higher skills [2,19].…”

“…To cope with the illness of a loved one, whether sudden or chronic, relatives must deploy affective, cognitive and relational strategies to support their own towards recovery [1]. Such experience is demanding in itself and several factors may facilitate or hinder the adoption of attitudes and behaviors conducive to better health.…”