Emotional support for stroke survivors: Share Your Story Group

Abstract

Aims This article discusses the implementation and evaluation of a psychosocial group for stroke survivors in the acute phase of rehabilitation. Participants were encouraged to share thoughts and feelings about the impact of their stroke, progress in rehabilitation, and views on the future. It was hoped that this intervention would help patients' emotional adjustment to difficulties following stroke. The evaluation aimed to discover how successful the group was in achieving this. Methods Participants' emotional functioning was measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) (Zigmond and Snaith, 1983), and showed no significant changes in mood following the group. A trend towards improvement in mood was indicated by the reduction of mean HADS scores at the end of the intervention. Participants' contributions during the group sessions were recorded on flipcharts. Participants were asked to rate, on a 10-point Likert-rating item, how helpful for recovery they found the group. Findings The categorization of participants' contributions revealed eight themes in their attitude to stroke problems. While the evaluation did not show that the group caused a significant improvement in participants' moods, the majority reported on the 10-point Likert-rating item that the group was helpful for the recovery process (average score 7). Conclusions A longer intervention with larger numbers of participants would be necessary to assess whether the group could improve mood. However, even with this brief trial, participants found it very helpful, and the group leaders reported that they gained a better understanding of participants' individual ways of dealing with difficulties, and that this intervention contributed to improved team working.