The role of the social network during inpatient rehabilitation: A qualitative study exploring the views of older stroke survivors and their informal caregivers.

Background: After discharge, stroke survivors and their informal caregivers need support from their social networks to resume their most valued activities. Rehabilitation professionals could help them establish a strong support system.

Objective: Explore how older stroke survivors and their primary informal caregivers expect to resume their valued activities after discharge, and discover their ideas about involving, informing and educating their family members, friends and important others during inpatient rehabilitation so that, once home, they will have adequate support.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with stroke survivors from three geriatric rehabilitation centres and their primary informal caregivers, used the pictures of daily activities to elicit their perspectives, and applied a descriptive and interpretive design to data analysis.

Results: Many participants had no concrete idea about how to resume their activities after discharge but nevertheless were optimistic they would. They expected help to be available and saw no need for professionals to involve their network during inpatient rehabilitation. However, once they had insight into the challenges to expect after discharge, they often appreciated the idea of professionals contacting their network. To better understand the challenges after discharge, it was helpful if professionals provided concrete, honest information about the stroke's consequences for daily life. Actually doing daily activities also helped gain better insights.

Conclusions: To enhance insight in the need of social support after discharge, we suggest that rehabilitation professionals are honest about what to expect and let stroke survivors explore their valued activities in a realistic context more often.