Fill in the Stroke Watch survey online.

Or

Download the Stroke Watch form and send it to the Irish Heart Foundation, 4 Clyde Rd, Dublin 4. 

Did you know that  Ireland has one of the lowest numbers of rehabilitation specialists per head of population in Europe?

In fact, less than half of all stroke patients were seen by a Physiotherapist within 72 hours of admission according to our National Stroke Audit. And only one-in-four were assessed by an Occupational Therapist within seven days of admission. To add to that, just €7 million is currently being spent on community rehabilitation services for stroke which our charity highlighted in our Cost of Stroke in Ireland report.

What does this mean? It means that nearly 50,000 stroke survivors in Ireland do not have access to essential rehabilitation in hospitals or in the community.

But the good news is there is something you can do about it. The HSE is overhauling Ireland’s acute stroke services and we need your help to monitor the services near you so Ireland’s stroke survivors get the rehabilitation they badly need.

Stroke Watch

Join Stroke Watch and help us keep a close eye on rehabilitation services in your area.

We know that stroke survivors are not getting timely access to rehabilitation, here’s your chance to speak out and tell your story.

Tell us about your local services and we’ll:

Collate information so we can see what’s happening across Ireland. It’ll help us when we’re talking to the key decision makers, who can make a difference to the quality of local rehabilitation services.

Provide you with contacts and information on starting your own campaign to advocate for better services.

Point 9 in the Irish Heart Foundation’s Stroke Manifesto (2009) calls on the Government “to give every patient an entitlement to appropriate levels of short and long term rehabilitation in hospital and in the community”.   We want the Irish Heart Foundation’s Stroke Action campaign to focus on this point and exert pressure on Government to fund and implement the new Clinical Programme for Rehabilitation.  

Survey Response

The response so far has been overwhelming, with people’s stories illustrating just how damaging the lack of rehabilitation has been.

These are just a small sample of people’s experiences:

•  “I would have to say that initially the services are great but when you leave rehab, depending on where you live, you have a greater, or a lesser possibility of recovery. You are let go and that is basically it. You have to fend for yourself.”
• “When I left the National Rehabilitation Hospital I was happy to be home but I wasn’t by any means fully recovered. When I was discharged all the therapies stopped.”
•  “After 8 weeks we were told she had reached her ‘full potential’ and she was transferred to a nursing home where she now resides.”
• “I still need physiotherapy for my left arm. I contacted my doctor to arrange it, but I haven’t heard anything for a year. To keep exercising I have joined a gym. But it is hard to do it on your own; you haven’t got the same motivation.”    
• “Access to further rehab has been a non-runner in spite of numerous phone calls. The most distressing part is the complete lack of speech therapy. I feel she would benefit from this as she can now say words but she cannot make a complete sentence. This makes communication very difficult.”
• "Currently waiting on physio as the physiotherapist has been off sick for two months and no cover, this means my progress with my left arm has stopped."