Social work after stroke: identifying demand for support by recording stroke patients’ and carers’ needs in different phases after stroke

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious studies examining social work interventions in stroke often lack information on content, methods and timing over different phases of care including acute hospital, rehabilitation and out-patient care. This limits our ability to evaluate the impact of social work in multidisciplinary stroke care.We aimed to quantify social-work-related support in stroke patients and their carers in terms of timing and content, depending on the different phases of stroke care.MethodsWe prospectively collected and evaluated data derived from a specialized “Stroke-Service-Point” (SSP); a “drop in” center and non-medical stroke assistance service, staffed by social workers and available to all stroke patients, their carers and members of the public in the metropolitan region of Berlin, Germany.ResultsEnquiries from 257 consenting participants consulting the SSP between March 2010 and April 2012 related to out-patient and in-patient services, therapeutic services, medical questions, medical rehabilitation, self-help groups and questions around obtaining benefits. Frequency of enquiries for different topics depended on whether patients were located in an in-patient or out-patient setting. The majority of contacts involved information provision. While the proportion of male and female patients with stroke was similar, about two thirds of the carers contacting the SSP were female.ConclusionThe social-work-related services provided by a specialized center in a German metropolitan area were diverse in terms of topic and timing depending on the phase of stroke care. Targeting the timing of interventions might be important to increase the impact of social work on patient’s outcome.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12883-016-0626-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Care process for stroke patients in kenya: mixed study

“…This finding stresses the issue of affordability of the services. It further supports the findings of Padberg [31]. The second reason of not using home-based rehabilitation could have been the severity of stroke.…”

Post-stroke care after medical rehabilitation in Germany: a systematic literature review of the current provision of stroke patients

“…These projects included counselling by social workers at a Stroke-Service-Point (SSP) [20], an organised stroke nurse [21] and structured help by a case manager [18, 22]. …”

“…It was accessible for every stroke patient and caregiver, as well as any health care practitioner. Different enquiries regarding medical rehabilitation services, assistance with reintegration back home or back into working life, as well as many other topics could be discussed with the social workers [20]. Padberg et al reveal that mainly female caregivers made use of this Service-Point to ask for assistance.…”

“…Padberg et al also reported that patients and their relatives or caregivers are often uninformed about services they are entitled to and about how to establish contact. They also report trouble obtaining these services because of the bureaucracy [20]. …”

“…Mainly relatives, and primarily women, are closely involved in getting advice on different services regarding follow-up care [20]. Even though most caregivers desire active involvement in follow-up care, they are unfortunately still not regarded as a resource.…”