The Unmet Needs of Stroke Survivors and Stroke Caregivers: A Systematic Narrative Review

Abstract

Introduction: Facilitating stroke survivors and their caregivers to lead a fulfilling life after stroke requires service providers to think about their different needs. Poor post stroke care may lead to unmet needs in stroke survivors and stroke caregivers. This may compromise them in leading their lives optimally after stroke. Objectives & Methodology: This systematic narrative review examines articles published from 1990 to 2017, generated from Ovid, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PubMed. The search was also supplemented by an examination of reference lists for related articles via Scopus. We included 105 articles. Findings: We found that the type of unmet needs in stroke survivors and the contributing factors were substantially different from their caregivers. The unmet needs in stroke survivors ranged from health-related needs to re-integration into the community; while the unmet needs in stroke caregivers ranged from information needs to support in caring for the stroke survivors and caring for themselves. Additionally, the unmet needs in both groups were associated with different factors. Conclusion: More research is required to understand the unmet needs of stroke survivors and stroke caregivers to improve the overall post-stroke care services.

An online survey of informal caregivers’ unmet needs and associated factors

“…Although our study identified that the unmet needs of caregivers were found to be comparable across participant variables, with the exclusion of age, there is a large body of evidence to support the importance of different caregiving scenarios on unmet needs experienced by caregivers. For example, carers of young stroke survivors (less than 65 years old) were found to have higher unmet needs than other carers of stroke survivors [44] and ethnicity may be associated with the long-term unmet needs among carers of stroke survivors [45]. A study investigating the long-term unmet needs of carers of people who have cancer, found that early perceived caregiving stress predicted all domains of unmet needs at the eight year follow-up [46].…”

Videos para mejorar las habilidades prácticas y conocimientos de cuidadores de pacientes con accidente cerebrovascular

“…Por lo tanto, serán pacientes dependientes y requerirán un cuidador, quien a menudo es un miembro de la familia que adapta sus propias responsabilidades y asume ese papel incluso sin tener la capacitación adecuada (cuidador informal). Los cuidadores juegan un papel muy importante, especialmente después del alta hospitalaria (2,3) , que por lo general coincide con la fase subaguda y es la etapa en que los pacientes logran la mayor parte de su recuperación (4) . La educación del cuidador es crucial para reducir los riesgos para su propia salud física y mental (5) y para prevenir complicaciones y promover la recuperación del paciente (6) .…”

“…El cuidador no se siente preparado para regresar a casa, principalmente debido a la falta de conocimiento para lidiar con las secuelas. Además, han informado de la necesidad de recibir capacitación en tareas de atención específicas, como posicionamiento, movilizaciones y transferencias (2,7) . El posicionamiento, las movilizaciones y transferencias correctas protegen las articulaciones, proporcionan comodidad y previenen complicaciones como problemas respiratorios, úlceras de decúbito, dolor, contracturas, acortamientos e inflamación.…”

mHealth applications to support caregiver needs and engagement during stroke recovery: A content review

“…Due to the complexities involved in stroke care (Clarke & Forster, 2015), including the management of risk factors and symptoms, monitoring of vitals, and changes to lifestyle, people with stroke are more likely to depend on caregivers as a means for support (Young et al, 2014). Beyond ensuring secondary prevention, the caregivers are expected to play a vital role in the continuum of care, which involve decision‐making, assisting in rehabilitation, providing physical and emotional support, support in patient daily living and assisting with other tangible aspects such as specialized hospital care, community reintegration, managing relationships, financial, insurance, and transportation (Haley et al, 2019; Zawawi et al, 2020). With the number of active roles required for the caregiver to fulfill, there is a need to identify interventions to support these roles better, while continually engaging the patient cognitively, emotionally, and physically, with an intention to enhance recovery.…”