Proactive coping post stroke: the Restored4Stroke self-management study

In the Netherlands, 40,000 people suffer a stroke each year. After a stroke, people often have problems dealing with the changes they face. The Restore4Stroke Self-Management study examined whether it is helpful to teach people who have suffered a stroke and their partners proactive coping, in other words to teach them to anticipate potential unpleasant consequences of stroke while planning a goal. Although proactive coping was found to be an important indicator of psychosocial functioning after stroke, teaching such strategies to groups of people who have suffered a stroke and their partners did not result in increased proactive coping or fewer participation restrictions. Our results may be explained by the intervention not being implemented optimally or the effects of contextual, personal and therapeutic factors on the outcome of our intervention. Therefore, more research is needed into these factors

It ain't what you say, it's the way you say it: an analysis of the language of educational development

Communication with higher education staff is the most important activity of educational developers. Two sample texts were used to study the linguistic preferences of a group of 11 volunteers

Process evaluation of the Restore4stroke Self-Management intervention 'Plan Ahead!': a stroke-specific self-management intervention

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the self-management intervention was implemented as intended. Additionally, we studied involvement in and satisfaction with the intervention among patients, their partners and therapists. DESIGN: Mixed method, prospective study. SETTING: Outpatient facilities of hospitals/rehabilitation centres. PARTICIPANTS: Stroke patients, their partners and therapists from the experimental arm of the Restore4Stroke Self-Management study. INTERVENTION: ‘Plan Ahead!’ is a 10-week self-management intervention for stroke patients and partners, consisting of seven two-hour group sessions. Proactive action planning, education and peer support are main elements of this intervention. MAIN MEASURES: Session logs, questionnaires for therapists, patients and their partners, and focus groups. DATA ANALYSIS: Qualitative data were analysed with thematic analysis supplemented by quasi-statistics. Quantitative data were reported as descriptive statistics. RESULTS: The study sample consisted of 53 patients and 26 partners taking part in the intervention, and all therapists delivering the intervention (N = 19). At least three-quarters of the intervention sessions were attended by 33 patients and 24 partners. On a scale from 1 to 10, patients, partners and therapists rated the intervention with mean scores of 7.5 (SD1.6), 7.8 (SD.7) and 7.4 (SD.7), respectively. Peer support was the most frequently appreciated element for participants and therapists. The proactive action planning tool was adequately applied in 76 of the 96 sessions. CONCLUSION: Although the target audience was reached and both participants and therapists were satisfied with the intervention, the proactive action planning tool that distinguishes the current intervention from existing stroke-specific self-management interventions was only partly implemented according to protocol