Barriers to self management support following stroke
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Barriers to self-management support across the stroke pathway: An ethnographic study
IRAS ID
187323
Contact name
Fiona Jones
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
St. George's University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 9 months, 4 days
Research summary
More than 60% of UK adults live with at least one long-term condition. This patient group accounts for around 80% of General Practice consultations, 66% of emergency admissions and 60% of bed-days. There is much interest in how best to support patients with long-term conditions to self-manage, due to the potential for improving clinical outcomes and reducing emergency service use. Evidence suggests that patients with the poorest health literacy have the most to gain from self management support.
A number of studies in stroke self-management have indicated lower rates of recruitment to programmes from certain patient groups. These include those with aphasia, low mood and cognitive impairment. In some cases, no clear reason is given for exclusion, other than the patients are perceived as challenging or non-compliant.
This potential “gatekeeping” by healthcare professionals may indicate a need to develop augmented skills to support more complex patient groups.
This ethnographic study will investigate barriers to providing self-management support. It will utilise observation of interactions between therapists (Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language therapists and Physiotherapists) and interviews with therapists and patients. Data will be collected across a stroke pathway, consisting of a hyper-acute and acute stroke unit and a community stroke team. Findings will inform approaches to delivering self-management support and to refine self-management training for healthcare professionals, to improve accessibility and equity of self-management support for post-stroke individuals.REC name
London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/0418
Date of REC Opinion
13 May 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion