Stroke victims - Invest more in aftercare

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the Irish Heart Foundation have released a study which shows that while there have been revolutionary improvements in the treatment of stroke victims in hospital during the last three years, there have been huge deficiencies in their aftercare.

If a stroke is treated in time, the damage can be greatly and even totally reversed, but many survivors have problems afterwards.

Unfortunately, there has been essentially no improvement in the community rehabilitation services for stroke victims after they leave hospital.

Survivors often face great difficulties in readjusting to a normal life afterwards. Some 60% of survivors reported being financially affected. More than half of those who were of working age at the time of their stroke were unable to return to work, or had to take on reduced roles.

Stroke victims in need of physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, or counselling to deal with the psychological impact of the stroke are generally unable to access such services, with the result that they feel abandoned. Their quality of life could therefore be greatly improved.

In any caring society, people in need of such services should not be denied them, just because they are unable to pay for them. Most people may not be affected by such problems at this time, but they, or their loved ones, will probably be affected at some stage of their lives.

Thus it is in the interest of everybody that the quality of aftercare should parallel the magnificent advances that have achieved in the survival rate of stroke victims.