StrokeLINK

Impact

Strokelink is a specialist nurse service that uses co-designed tools to help patients feel confident to manage their own condition post stroke, and to stay as well as they can, at home in the community.

StrokeLINK has shown remarkable results:

• 93% of patients made healthier lifestyle changes compared with 42% before StrokeLINK.
• This includes stopping smoking (64% compared with 14% before) and monitoring their own blood pressure (97% compared with 42% before).
• 98% of patients rated their post hospital care as excellent compared with 63% before StrokeLINK.

Challenge

1 in 5 Irish people will suffer a stroke at some point in their lives, and the results can be life-changing to patients and their families. A majority of stroke patients report feeling afraid, ill-prepared and unsure where to turn to for help after going home from hospital. This can lead to poor engagement with the health advice and medications they were given in hospital, resulting in costly crisis re-admissions. Many stroke complications are avoidable through better patient education and empowerment which enables patients to take control of their own recovery and develop healthy life-style habits.

Process

The aim of StrokeLINK is to help give people the tools they need to change their lifestyle and to engage with the advice they’ve been given in hospital. The design research team developed a patient-friendly booklet for stroke patients. This was co-designed with patients and healthcare workers.

Patients are guided through the booklet by a StrokeLINK nurse. The nurse regularly follows up with the patient post discharge, at regular intervals before their next hospital appointment and is a point of contact to respond to issues that arise. Text messages are sent at regular intervals to the patients and include reminders to collect their medication, check their blood pressure and check-in with their GP. The StrokeLINK team across the Mater and NCAD created a video on how to monitor your blood pressure, which was co-created with patients & healthcare professionals. This is sent with one of the text messages, and this video is available on the StrokeLINK YouTube channel also.

The StrokeLINK website is at an advanced stage. Planning workshops and collaboration with stroke patients, their families, stroke nurses and therapists has been a huge feature of the research behind the website. Content is now being written by the wider multidisciplinary team who look after stroke patients.

Output

The Stroke book is a comprehensive guide to post stroke care, complete with patient friendly information. The booklet is loved by patients, it is often found in patients’ kitchens or on the coffee table in their homes for easy access. The video on monitoring blood pressure is available for patients and their families, and more videos are in progress. The StrokeLINK website is at an advanced stage which will go live in September 2023.

The result for the patients is a service that truly meets their needs, giving them the right support and information, at the right time, in the right way.