JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Each year, more than 1.5 million people in Europe have a stroke, and many experience disabilities leading to activity and participation restrictions. Despite this, rehabilitation often focuses on the person's physical functions and not on the whole life situation and opportunities to live an active life. Given that rehabilitation today often is provided in the person’s home, there is a need to develop new models that consider the rehabilitation process as situated in the everyday living environment of persons with stroke. This project is grounded in experiences from our ongoing research, where we study the importance of the home and home environments for health and participation among persons with stroke, rehabilitated at home. Earlier findings have shown unmet issues, which lead to suboptimal rehabilitation outcomes. There is a need for studies on how to use environmental resources to optimize stroke rehabilitation in the home setting.

Objective:

The overarching objective of the project is to develop a new practice model for rehabilitation where the needs of the person are the starting point and where the environment is considered.

Methods:

The project will be conducted in partnership with persons with stroke, significant others, healthcare professionals, and care managers. Results from a literature review will form the base for interviews with the stakeholders, followed by co-designing workshops aiming to create a new practice model. Focus groups will be held to refine the outcome of the workshops to a practice model.

Results:

This four-year project commenced in January 2023 and will continue until December 2026. The results of the literature review are, as of February 2024, currently being analyzed. The ethics application for the interviews and co-design phase was approved in October 2023 and data collection is ongoing during winter and spring 2023/2024. We will develop a practice model with stakeholders and refine it together with care managers and decision-makers. The outcome of the project is a practice model and implementation plan, which will be achieved in autumn 2026.

Conclusions:

A supportive environment is important for facilitating participation in daily life. As knowledge is scarce on how the environment can support rehabilitation and people’s health, there is reason to explore this further. The new practice model may lead to improved quality of life and increased mobility for the large group of people who rehabilitate at home after a stroke.