PEMBROKE — Renfrew County stroke survivors will soon benefit from a new outpatient program at Pembroke Regional Hospital (PRH) which offers a specialized team approach to stroke rehabilitation.
The announcement of a new Community Stroke Rehabilitation (CSR) program comes as welcome news to health care partners, patients and their families who, for some time, have been asking for such publically funded services.
Thanks to the recognized need and funding by the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) – Home and Community Care, the new bilingual program will be administered in partnership with the Pembroke Regional Hospital, and available for Renfrew County residents.
“This program addresses a gap in services for stroke survivors who currently can only access publically funded stroke rehabilitation while they are inpatients in a hospital,” said Theresa Grant, Project Manager for the CSR program with the Champlain LHIN, who added that there are only two other programs in the Champlain LHIN that provide this type of service – Bruyere Continuing Care outpatient clinic in Ottawa, and a CSR program in a part of the eastern counties.
The program which includes care co-ordination, nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech language therapy and social work will provide intensive, time-limited stroke rehabilitation targeting individual patient goals. An important aspect of the program is the integration into ongoing community programs and services.
Sabine Mersmann, Vice-President of Patient Services – Seniors and Community Care at PRH said the introduction of a service like this for our region will be a real benefit for patients who are well enough to return home but are far from complete in their rehabilitation journey or only need outpatient services after their acute stay or hospital visit.
“We are very pleased to be part of this program which will address what has been long identified as a significant gap in our community,” Ms. Mersmann said.
As of late March, patients who meet the program’s criteria will be referred directly from the Pembroke Regional Hospital’s Acute Stroke Unit, Stroke Prevention Clinic and/or the Stroke Rehabilitation program.
Patients will be seen one to two times per week for each type of therapy for approximately eight to 12 weeks in a clinic setting located at PRH, the District Stroke Centre for Renfrew County. Some patients may receive services in their homes. All patients will be provided with a home therapy program to continue therapy throughout the week.
“The extension of post-stroke care through an outpatient program like this will result in tangible improvements for our patients,” said PRH physiatrist Dr. Debbie Timpson. “Patient outcomes from similar programs in other parts of the LHIN have shown increased ability and satisfaction with performing everyday tasks, reduced post-stroke depression and overall improvements in a return to normal living post stroke.”
