Rehabilitation Through Reintegration: Supporting Survivors of Stroke

After returning home from inpatient care, survivors of stroke have several ongoing needs related to this transition that are not always fully addressed, leading to poor community reintegration and psychosocial well-being. The purpose of this capstone project was to modify a community-based occupational therapy program to improve community reintegration and psychosocial well-being among survivors of stroke. One significant modification was the implementation of a survivor support group focused on psychosocial topics. Interviews and formal assessments conducted with participants indicated several perceived benefits from the support groups as well as a decrease in depression and anxiety and an increase in community reintegration and quality of life. An additional component of the project was the development of an ideal model of care for survivors of stroke, which concluded that community-based programs should be widely implemented to facilitate care and community reintegration following the return to home. Based on the results of this project, occupational therapy should develop community-based programs with survivor support groups to improve psychosocial well-being, and research should continue to explore the benefits of community-based practice for survivors of stroke