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Integrated Community Stroke Rehabilitation Team (Barnsley)
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About the service
The Stroke Rehabilitation Unit at Kendray Hospital provides a borough-wide community rehabilitation service, which enables people who have had a stroke to access a service which specialises in stroke and rehabilitation.
The Stroke Service consists of 3 main elements:
- 12 inpatient rehabilitation beds based at Kendray Hospital
- An early supported discharge team which allows patients to receive intensive therapy at home if they are medically stable
- Community stroke team for patients who may have ongoing rehabilitation needs, with achievable goals
Why would someone choose the service?
The stroke unit is a purpose-built 12 bedded ensuite facility with a fully equipped gym, recreational and outside space.
The team includes specialist therapists, nurses and medical staff all specialising in stroke.
There are opportunities for group and individual work with therapists.
All patients have access to Stroke Association Support worker who offers additional advice and support to families and carers.
We are an active member of the regional stroke network and share good practice form our service regionally and nationally.
Staff you may meet
- Activity co-ordinators are responsible for implementing a range of therapeutic activities. Examples of activities provided include social, recreational, leisure, communication, sensory or educational sessions.
- There are many different allied health professions including art, drama and music therapists, dieticians, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists. AHPs often work on their own and may work directly with a patient to develop interactive therapies to aid recovery.
- Dietitians use the science of food to help people to make good choices about food and lifestyle. Nutrition is an important part of recovery and wellbeing. All service users admitted to a Trust ward have their nutritional state assessed.
- There are more than 60 different specialities that doctors work within the NHS. Each is unique but there are many characteristics which are common. Roles range from working in a hospital to being based in the community as a GP.
- Nurses who choose to specialise in the mental health branch of nursing work with GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, and others, to help care for patients. Increasingly, care is given in the community, with mental health nurses visiting patients and their families at home, in residential centres, in prisons or in specialist clinics or units.
- Nursing or healthcare assistants work in hospital or community settings under the guidance of a qualified healthcare professional. They help doctors, nurses and therapists give people the care and treatment they need.
- Occupational therapy is the assessment and treatment of physical and psychiatric conditions using specific, purposeful activity to prevent disability and promote independent function in all aspects of daily life.
- The NHS employs a wide range of clinical staff, it wouldn’t be possible to list them all on this website! All our clinical staff are skilled, dedicated professionals who adhere to high standards of training and work-place practice.
- Physiotherapists help people to improve their range of movement in order to promote health and well being. This can help people to live more independently.
- Social workers help, support and protect people who are facing difficulties in their lives. They help people to take positive steps to overcome problems and improve their lives. This could involve assessing and reviewing a service user’s situation, building relationships with service users and their families and agreeing what practical support someone needs.
- We have a range of specialist advisors working in our Trust – they give advice on a wide range of different things, depending on what service they work in. So it could be, for example, mental health, stopping smoking, healthy eating or diabetes.
- We have a range of health workers who all have different specialities. This could be in a certain condition, a therapy or the advice they can give you. Our specialists our highly skilled and trained professionals, ready to offer you help and advice whenever you need it.
- Therapy is a broad term and can range from occupational therapists to behavioural therapists. Our therapists are trained in their specialist area and type of therapy to make sure we can offer the very best care.
- On a ward you will see many different members of staff, not all of them are clinical staff! Non-clinical staff include housekeepers and administrators. Ward housekeepers work with other staff to make sure everywhere is clean and tidy and that you have good food. Administrators have clerical and admin roles, like keeping patient notes filed safely, and they can often help you with general enquiries. If you’re not sure who anybody is please ask them to explain.
Why a professional should choose the service
This is a highly effective service that consistently scores well in the National SSNAP data.
It is well received by patients and families and scores well in local Friends and Family Tests. .
All referrals for Early Supported Discharge, are contacted within 24 hours form discharge from hospital to offer support and organise assessment.
Community referrals are contacted within 48 hours and a treatment plan in place by 7 days
Our service is staffed to the levels recommended in the Royal College of Physicians Stroke Guidelines.
Support offered
Specialist Rehabilitation whilst requiring inpatient care.
Specialist intensive rehabilitation when medically stable and able to live independently or with carer support in the patients own home.
Specialist support to residential/nursing homes.
- Mobility and movement (including exercise programmes, gait retraining, mobility aids and orthotics)
- Upper limb rehabilitation
- Management of spasticity and tone
- Sensory impairment screening and sensory discrimination training
- Falls prevention (including assessment of bone health, progressive balance training and aids)
- Cognitive rehabilitation (including addressing impairment inattention, memory, spatial awareness, perception, praxis and executive function)
- Communication (including aphasia support, techniques or aids for dysarthria and apraxia, information about local groups)
- Everyday activities including the provision of daily living aids and equipment (e.g. dressing, washing, meal preparation)
- Emotional and psychosocial issues (e.g. depression, adjustment difficulties, changes in self-esteem or efficacy, emotionalism)
- Swallowing (including swallowing rehab, maintenance of oral and dental hygiene, nasogastric tube feeding, gastrostomy)
- Skin integrity ( i.e. pressure care and positioning)
- Nutrition (including specialist nutritional assessment, nutritional support)
- Visual disturbance
- Continence (bladder and bowel)
- Social interaction, relationships and sexual functioning (including psychosocial management or medications)
- Pain (assessed regularly using validated score, referred to specialist where indicated)
- Home assessment (including need for larger scale equipment or adaptation)
- Carer support and training
- Driving
- Financial management and accessing benefits
- Return to work including referral to a specialist in employment or vocational rehabilitation
- Review of rehabilitation goals
Outcomes
To allow patients to meet their maximum potential and achieve their goals
Referrals accepted from:
Consultants, Hospital staff, Other NHS services
Referrals also accepted from:
Hyper acute stroke units, acute stroke units, health care professionals working with stroke patients
Referral criteria:
Over 18 years old, however, exceptions where the patient who is 16 years or older whose needs have been identified as being best met with the skills of the ICSRT
- Primary diagnosis of stroke
- The patient must be medically stable with appropriate medical investigations initiated
- Rehabilitation goals must be identifiable
- Re-referrals of people with a stroke are accepted if there are specific rehabilitation goals which require specialist community stroke rehabilitation
- Patient consents to intervention by the team
- Patients cannot be discharged to the ICSRT until necessary care, equipment and transportation are in place which should be organised by the hospital stroke service discharging the patient
- For patients discharged alone to a private address they must be able to maintain their own safety independently