Stroke Rehab Pilot

Stroke Rehab Pilot (Ends September 2023)

The stroke pathway pilot is developing services to improve the long-term rehabilitation for Stroke Survivors in Northamptonshire. We are working with National Health Service England & Improvement (NHSE & I) to advance the stroke pathway.

The NHSE & I stroke pathway pilot completes in March 2023, but the Northampton Stroke rehab pilot has been extended to September 2023.

The pilot seeks to enhance the current Northamptonshire Community Stroke Team offer via the following services:

Vocational Rehabilitation

To enhance the stroke pathway to provide return to work support and links with other agencies. More information is available on the vocational rehabilitation service and how to self-refer into the service.

Streamlined Patient and Family Support

To work with the patients, families and carers to understand what support they require and offer innovative multi-level support in response.

Psychological support

To embed psychological training to existing Community Stroke Team staff enabling them to provide low level psychological support and escalation where appropriate.

CST Care

To provide a care service to stroke survivors to be able to assist with complex discharges, especially those with complex cognitive needs.

Our aims and goals

We want to deliver a service model that:

Improves Patient and Staff Experience
Is a Sustainable Integrated Service with Robust Outcomes
Has National Influence, Recognition and Replication

We plan to do this by:

Recruitment - 20+ multi-disciplinary staff to enhance and support services.
Training - To help upskill new staff and integrate into the team, specialist service training for psychology and care.
Services - Service Planning and use of innovative collaboration.
Patient Engagement - Patient and Staff Engagement and feedback.
Use of IT to promote remote working and remote therapy - creation of a NGH Stroke Hub Community Network.
Becoming truly integrated - designing enhanced pathways of care, vocational support, peer support and psychological support that feel seamless to the patient integrated into our operations.
Data Collection - Additional data collected to show worth, collect patient and staff experience data, display our outcomes innovatively and accessibly to demonstrate ongoing need. Sharing Outcomes with NHS England and NGH Communications.
Sustainable and Replicated – embedded training and learning from the pilot into the team to ensure continuation of enhanced skills and ongoing service improvement. Ways of working to be established as part of business as usual and fully committed to by all partners. Clearly demonstrate improvement in patient and staff experience and outcomes. Nationally recognised services easily replicated and secure future funding.

The NGH Stroke Pathway Pilot - Independence Beyond Stroke

Pilot Outcomes

We believe that every stroke survivor in Northamptonshire deserves access to excellent care, targeted support, stimulating activities and appropriate therapies so that they can move towards living an independent, fulfilling and enjoyable life beyond their stroke. This pilot is so very important and exciting, because it provides the Community Stroke Team and Northampton General Hospital with the opportunity, resources and funding to build on all the great work we have done over the last 11 years and co create with our patients, families and carers an integrated goal driven community stroke rehabilitation service model which supports our patients needs in the following areas:

Pilot Aims

The pilot gives us the opportunity to focus on:

Providing the foundation stones every patient needs to achieve their rehabilitation goals and live an independent, fulfilling and enjoyable life beyond their stroke.
Improving functional and quality of life outcomes.
Embedding level 1 and 2 psychological support into the entire pathway.
Providing medium to long term information and peer-to-peer support for patients, families and carers.
Developing a model for implementation and delivery of an efficient, responsive and effective stroke rehabilitation service that is highly valued and acclaimed by staff, patients, families and the wider community.

Pilot Philosophy and Ethos

A diagram which which has 'person' in the centre. Five circles blend with the word 'person', they are: Social, Emotional, Spiritual, Cognitive and Physical

Strengths based approach - Independence, fulfilment and joy.
Psychological needs - are bedrock upon which all physical rehab is built.
Whole person approach - give equal time to psychological needs in service of physical rehabilitation.
Repationships are key - build psychological support groups, virtually and in person.
Family support - build psychological support groups virtually and in person.

Northampton General Hospital (NGH) Stroke Hub

Image of a woman using a mobile phone to browse messages within an online social group. Our online “My Stroke Hub” is a secure platform that staff, patients, and their families will be invited to join. We will ask you if you want to join, and invitations will be sent from the hospital team or the Community Stroke Team. The hub will provide information, support, training, access to forums and articles designed especially for needs through your rehabilitation journey.

My Stroke Hub

100% secret community – invitation only
Staff and patients together in a shared space
Private and secret areas mean that staff training and resources can be held on the same platform 24/7 moderated online community
Northamptonshire specific for stroke patients
Reliable, clinically accurate, curated content and support around stroke and general health and wellbeing Structured support and encouragement
Positive peer-to-peer relationship building
Question and answer space
Inspirational conversations and debates
Sharing ideas, perspectives, and experiences

The Stroke Hub is currently under design, and more information will follow as soon as it is available. If you have ideas of what you would like to see in the Stroke Hub – please contact the team.

Can you give your time to help improve stroke rehabilitation?

Can you help us learn from your experiences as stroke survivor?

Interviews

If you can part in a short interview to collect your feedback on in terms of support from care agencies, care from the Community Stroke Team, psychological support, patient and family support, help to return to work, and any support groups you attended.

Your time and support would be a great help to us as an insight to how we can improve the stroke rehabilitation service. Collecting experience feedback is important to the successful development and delivery of the pilot. It increases engagement, accountability, value and support for the project as a whole.

Enable us to provide the best possible care and improve the services we provide – get in touch with us.

Tel: 01604 544275
Email: ngh-tr.cst@nhs.net

Stroke Patient Forum

Can you help us learn from your experiences as stroke survivor?

The aim of the Stroke Forum is to provide the pilot project with information, experiences, perspectives and ideas to help us shape the development of the Northamptonshire Community Stroke services

We need stroke survivors who can meet with us once a month. We currently meet remotely, get in touch with us and we will send an invite to the Forum about two weeks in advance with details of the topic for discussion.

Tel: 01604 544275
Email: ngh-tr.cst@nhs.net

Stroke Ward Volunteer

Can you help as a volunteer on one of our Stroke Wards in Northampton General Hospital?

We would very much like to be able to offer patients in our stroke ward, peer support by sharing the company of volunteers that have had previous experience of dealing with a stroke whether that is themselves or a family member/friend.

Peer support is where patients can meet with others, in person or online, as equals to give each other connection and support. Peer support enables people to provide knowledge, experience, and emotional, social or practical help to each other.

Being able to share your experiences and rehabilitation journey would bring valuable influence and motivation to current patients. Please contact us by:

Tel: 01604 544136
Email: ngh-tr.volunteer.services@nhs.net

Patient Stories & Feedback

Psychology Wellbeing Pathway Feedback

“We’re not just legs and arms and a mouth...we are human beings with a mixture of emotions. All these feelings...self-esteem, self-worth, confidence, identity ...they’re all under attack after a stroke...you can feel vulnerable, frightened and you can lose yourself - it’s about reinvention and finding direction”

CST Care Feedback

“I knew I would go home and not be forgotten”.
“CST-CARE made such a difference”
“Intense rehab that pushes me, makes me try more”
“Relationship with CST and CARE is one of trust, you can’t put a value on the relationship”
“Encouraging”
“Consistency”
“Promoting independence”

CST Care Case Study

Vocational Rehabilitation Feedback

“Their help and support to me has been immense and I cannot thank them enough for their assistance. Without this, I am absolutely sure that I would have had to resign from my employment.”
“It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be but having your help has made it happen.”
“Their help was absolutely invaluable; it was only with their input that I was able to return to work. I truly felt like they had helped me get my life back”

Family and Peer Support Feedback

“To have someone support me that has been through the same experience means so much, it can be so isolating, it is good to be able share views and just talk, it has inspired me.”