Community stroke rehabilitation teams: providing home-based stroke rehabilitation in Ontario, Canada.

Background: Community stroke rehabilitation teams (CSRTs) provide a community-based, interdisciplinary approach to stroke rehabilitation. Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of these teams with respect to client outcomes.

Methods: Functional, psychosocial, and caregiver outcome data. were available at intake, discharge from the program, and six-month follow-up. Repeated measures analysis of covariance was performed to assess patient changes between time points for each outcome measure.

Results: A total of 794 clients met the inclusion criteria for analysis (54.4% male, mean age 68.5±13.0 years). Significant changes were found between intake and discharge on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale total score (p=0.017), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Anxiety subscale (p<0.001), Functional Independence Measure (p<0.001), Reintegration to Normal Living Index (p=0.01), Bakas Caregiver Outcomes Scale (p<0.001), and Caregiver Assistance and Confidence Scale assistance subscale (p=0.005). Significant gains were observed on the strength, communication, activities of daily living, social participation, memory, and physical domains of the Stroke Impact Scale (all p<0.001). These improvements were maintained at the 6-month follow-up. No significant improvements were observed upon discharge on the memory and thinking domain of the Stroke Impact Scale; however, there was a significant improvement between admission and follow-up (p=0.002). All significant improvements were maintained at the 6-month follow-up.

Conclusions: Results indicate that the community stroke rehabilitation teams were effective at improving the functional and psychosocial recovery of patients after stroke. Importantly, these gains were maintained at 6 months postdischarge from the program. A home-based, stroke-specific multidisciplinary rehabilitation program should be considered when accessibility to outpatient services is limited.