Feb 11, 2019
Proios H1, Loutrari A1,4, Tsakpounidou K1, Baskini M1, Uys W2, Van der Merwe J3,
1 Department of Educational and Social Policy, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece
2 Lucan Visuals, South Africa
3 Angels Initiative, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH
4 Aston University, UK
Growing old comes with wisdom and confidence, but several challenges also come into play. Evidence shows that old age is associated with greater stroke risk (Τeh et al., 2018). But there is always a bright side: old people very often get to enjoy the warm and rejuvenating company of young children. Research shows that during the last decades, the time grandparents spend looking after their grandchildren has substantially increased (Pulgaron et al., 2016). Sharing the process of growing up every step of the way is admirable and heroic. Grandparents are real heroes of the everyday, but even heroes are not invincible. Heroes need their own heroes, so children can become heroes themselves and save the life of their precious grandparents.
FAST HEROES 112 is an educational program for young children aiming at stroke prevention. Through a five-week pilot stage of the program in Thessaloniki, Greece, children were trained to identify stroke symptoms and seek help by dialing 112. Cartoon heroes representing stroke symptoms and the concept of time were used to familiarize children with the main stroke symptoms and the importance of acting urgently. Preliminary data are encouraging; they show that most children are able to memorize the three main stroke symptoms and appreciate the significance of taking action as fast as possible. FAST HEROES 112 aims to capture the imagination of more children in future interventions and, if need be, turn them into life-saving heroes.
References:
- Pulgaron ER, Marchante AN, Agosto Y, Lebron CN, Delamater AM. Grandparent Involvement and Children’s Health Outcomes: The Current State of the Literature. Fam Syst Health. 2016 September ; 34(3): 260–269. doi:10.1037/fsh0000212.
- Τeh WL, Abdin E, Vaingankar JA, Seow E, Sagayadevan V, Shafie S, Shazana Shahwan S, Zhang Y, Chong SA, Ng LL, Subramaniam M. Prevalence of stroke, risk factors, disability and care needs in older adults in Singapore: results from the WiSE study. MJ Open 2018;8:e020285. doi:10.1136/ bmjopen-2017-020285.
Feb 9, 2019
This article first appeared on ARNI Stroke Charity (UK) website | Author: Tom Balchin
Are you interested in learning about your sleep after stroke?
Researchers at the University of Oxford are currently investigating how sleep is affected by stroke.
Heidi Johansen-Berg is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Director of The Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging at the University of Oxford. There, she leads the Plasticity Group whose research focuses on how the brain changes with learning, experience, and damage.
As well as shedding light on how the healthy brain responds to change, The Plasticity Group’s work also has implications for understanding and treating disease. For example, they are currently studying how sleep can affect recovery after stroke.
Would you be interested in learning more about your sleep following stroke?
If so, The Plasticity Group are currently running a study in which you might be interested in participating – or you may know someone who is.
The aim for this study is to investigate how sleep is affected by stroke which could help to develop better sleep improvement programmes specifically for individuals after stroke.
We know that sleep plays an important role in learning. Studies have shown that if you take two groups of people and teach them the same skill, such as juggling, then allow one group to sleep for a few hours and keep the other group awake, the sleep group will perform significantly better when retested as they have been able to consolidate the memories of learning the skill through sleep.
Learning, or re-learning, of motor skills is a key component of motor rehabilitation after stroke. If sleep is impaired following stroke then consolidation of motor skills gained through physical rehabilitation may be diminished. Therefore, finding out about how sleep is affected by stroke could help us to develop better rehab outcomes following stroke.
The current study involves coming to a research centre in Oxford for one session to complete a couple of motor assessments with the upper limbs and to answer a couple of questionnaires about your sleep and mood. Then researchers will set you up with a pair of sleep monitoring wrist watches for you to wear for a week with a simple sleep diary asking what times you go to bed and get up each day.
Read the full article here.
Feb 7, 2019
The Angels Initiative is a unique healthcare initiative launched by Boehringer Ingelheim in partnership with the European Stroke Organisation (ESO), the World Stroke Organisation (WSO) and the Stroke Alliance for Europe (SAFE).
SAFE’s members proudly contributed to the Angles Initiative by providing critical information to stroke patients and their families as early as in stroke units. In addition to containing useful and evidence-based information, these brochures help improve patient – doctor communication as well.
The SAFE Angels project was realised in the first half of 2018. It involved translation to 13 European languages, design, printing and distribution of five different brochures for stroke patients and their carers. The core texts were kindly provided by Stroke Association UK.
13 organisations from the following countries took part in this project and made sure these brochures were made available in the stroke units: Spain, Serbia, Poland, Czech Republic, Latvia, Croatia, Macedonia, Greece, Ukraine, Georgia, Hungary and Turkey.
Patient information brochures are available only in a selected number of hospitals in the project countries, but can also be downloaded from SAFE website.
“We consider this as a pilot project, because we already distributed the whole quantity of the patient information brochures and now both patients and medical staff are asking when we will have it again. For now, we are signposting people to visit SAFE’s website and download the PDF versions.”
Ivan Milojevic, Serbian stroke support organisation Mozdani udar
In 2018, the Angels Initiative won the prestigious 2018 EFPIA Health Collaboration Award for Improving Stroke Care.
Deciding among 80 other applications, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) decided to honor the Angels Initiative with a “Health Collaboration” award in the category Service Delivery.
SAFE members proudly reported about this event, reminding their audiences once again of when these brochures can still be found in 12 European countries. For more detailed information, please see our Facebook page or look up for a specific stroke support organisation’s Facebook profile.
Feb 5, 2019
This year’s first SAFE Board meeting took place in London this week, from 4-5th February.
The Board members took two days to discuss the current and future SAFE Strategy, with special focus on governance, finances and supported growth in member organisations.
Among many SAFE ongoing projects, there will be two which are very important for SAFE’s political activities. The first and the fast approaching is the EU Presidency event that is going to organised in the EU Parliament on 28th March this year. The Board discussed the details around this project and the activities that will be performed prior to the event to ensure better impact. The other strategically important project is the big research about the Economic Impact of Stroke in Europe. This research is being done by the Oxford University researchers and the report is to be presented in the EU Parliament at the end of October this year, around the World Stroke Day.
The Board ratified the Social Media Strategy and agreed on ways forward and the venues for this year’s Regional Conferences were defined.
Stroke Support Organisation Faculty Tool (SSOFT) was again among the most important topics, considering its value and significance for the stroke support organisations’ empowerment.
Jan 31, 2019
This article first appeared on ARNI Stroke Charity (UK) website | Author: Tom Balchin
Tiredness is something we all experience in our everyday lives. But fatigue is where we experience tiredness which is unrelated to physical or mental exertion, and is not alleviated by rest. Up to 70% of survivors experience fatigue, characterised by overwhelming physical and/or mental tiredness or exhaustion. For many the symptoms dissipate and lessen over time. Others continue to experience these symptoms at a high level many years after their stroke. This is called chronic fatigue.
It is a condition which can greatly impact upon the quality of an individual’s life, making everyday tasks feel overwhelming and unachievable, or just plain exhausting.
Previously, it was thought that patients who experience depression post-stroke were fatigued as a result of their mental health, whereas it is now highly possible that the inverse relationship may, in fact, be true. Fatigue may often be the cause, or a significant contributing factor, of depression.
There is currently no clinical method for diagnosing fatigue, and no treatment is available to alleviate the condition.
Research into fatigue is at its very early stages. Work to contribute towards a treatment has now been spearheaded by Dr Anna Kuppuswamy, the lead researcher on the project.
Her study aims to further general understanding of how fatigue works in the brain, and whether or not it can be alleviated. The goal for the future is to be able to diagnose and treat fatigue effectively, so that no-one need experience its debilitating effects.
So, how can you help?
STROKE SURVIVORS EXPERIENCING HIGH LEVELS OF FATIGUE –
Please come to help Dr Kuppuswamy’s Team test a new intervention for fatigue!
You can read the full article here.
For more information about the UK ARNI Institute please visit their website.
