Transforming long-term support for stroke survivors - developing and implementing clinical tools that informed national policy and improved regional and national service provision

Narrative

Stroke survivors feel abandoned and uncertain after in-patient discharge. National policy requires six month and annual reviews of survivors’ needs but lacked guidance on which tools to use to: 1. review all survivors and 2. support those with specific impairments (communication/cognition). Working with survivors, University of Manchester researchers developed, disseminated and evaluated: review and action-planning toolkits (GM-SAT/GM-SAT2) and specific outcome measures(COAST/PRECiS). The GM-SAT/GM-SAT2 toolkits were recommended in national policy  and used to offer six month reviews for over >20,000 patients, doubling the reviews previously conducted. Impact included alerting GPs on risk of another stroke and improving quality of life. Worldwide, 600 clinicians/educators registered as licensees of COAST/PRECiS, enabling ‘person-centred care’ for the most vulnerable survivors with stroke-related communication/cognitive impairments.