2023-12-22 08:04:47
EU member states are light years away from developing comprehensive post-stroke care plans that go beyond basic care and are failing to collect enough data on stroke patients, say informed of stakeholders in the health sector.
Every year, more than 750,000 people suffer a stroke in Europe. Between 2017 and 2050, there is expected to be a 35% increase in cases on the continent.
A stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is interrupted, causing damage to brain tissue. This can have lasting effects on a person’s health and well-being, such as disability due to lasting brain damage. A first stroke also increases the risk of suffering a second stroke.
Stroke therefore has a considerable human and economic cost, particularly due to the complex situation in which survivors of such an accident find themselves following their discharge from hospital. Survivors are most often left to fend for themselves, as most European countries do not have a proper plan for post-stroke care.
Ideally, such a plan would cover a wide range of services, from psychological support to occupational therapy, social assistance, housing and professional reintegration.
Although some countries have taken steps, it is difficult to judge the quality of existing plans, according to Hanne Christensen, professor of neurology at the University of Copenhagen and chair of the Stroke Action Plan for Europe.
The plan is an initiative launched in 2018 by the Stroke Alliance for Europe (SAFE) and the European Stroke Organization (ESO), which aims to encourage all countries to adopt a comprehensive and funded national plan to combat stroke.
“I don’t think there’s a single country where stroke victims and their carers don’t say that life following stroke is by far the biggest problem”said Ms. Christensen.
Although stroke care plans still leave much to be desired, Christensen believes a major argument for action is that it really pays to improve care to ensure stroke survivors achieve the best results, limit their level of disability and remain as active as possible.
The Benefits of an Effective Stroke Care Plan
Without holistic post-stroke care plans, stroke survivors are often left to fend for themselves in a complex system.
In Germany, some measures are going in the right direction, with the authorities considering creating « guides AVC » holistic. The aim is to move away from the narrow conception of post-stroke health care, which dominates in most countries and ignores the complexity of the post-stroke lifestyle.
“It’s not just regarding the health system”explained Michael Brinkmeier, president of the German Stroke Support Foundation, in an interview with Euractiv. “It’s also regarding the social divide we face”.
These challenges vary greatly from person to person and “depend on their condition and the quality of their treatment”said Ms. Christensen.
In many cases, survivors’ families are left to care for them at home. If this is not possible, survivors, regardless of age, are sent to nursing homes, which lack trained staff to care for stroke survivors.
“The families are scandalized”Françoise Benon, president of the France AVC Endowment Fund patient association, told Euractiv.
However, when care is administered at home, it has a significant impact on the private and professional life of the caregiver. This work often ends up being the responsibility of women and leads to a further loss of contribution to society, Ms. Christensen said.
Poor data that obscures the importance of action
The lack of data is one of the main obstacles to improving stroke care in Europe.
According to Ms. Christensen, some countries do not even have precise numbers of people who suffer a stroke each year, the number of deaths, or even data on the gender of these people.
When it comes to life following a stroke, it’s regarding collecting “the best possible in the existing world” by asking whether countries have a stroke care program and, if so, what it includes and who has access to it, she explained.
“Even at this level, despite the complete lack of precision of these questions, only a few countries are able to answer. The truth is that there is no data”added Ms. Christensen.
To reverse the trend, stroke needs to receive greater attention. This is gradually happening, as ESO and the SAFE Stroke Action Plan for Europe inform countries on how to develop national stroke plans.
At the European level, theEU initiative on non-communicable diseases (NCDs)presented in 2021, aimed to improve “integrated care and rehabilitation pathways for stroke patients”building on the Stroke Action Plan for Europe.
Since then, a wide range of healthcare companies and organizations have been calling for a cardiovascular disease strategy along the same lines as the European plan to beat cancerraising hopes that conditions for stroke patients might soon improve across the EU.
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