Social Work's Partnership in Community-Based Stroke Prevention for Older Adults

Stroke prevention includes public education and community- based screenings to identify stroke risks. Even though more than half of all strokes are preventable, the incidence has increased in recent years and remains the leading cause of adult disability. Age is highly associated with stroke and twice as likely to occur with each decade after age 55. Risks fall into one of two categories. One category, such as obesity and high blood pressure, are controllable through behavior change and/or preventive medical care. The other category of risks, such as age or race, are not controllable. Stroke risks tend to occur in multiples that interact to heighten individual effects, thus, interdisciplinary methods to identify and reduce risk may be required. Social workers can play a key role in these partnerships. Social work's skills base in gerontology, psychosocial interventions, and empowerment through community organization are ideal for early intervention and behavior change. This article describes a collaborative community-based model for screening older adults for stroke risk and lessons learned from a three-month risk reduction follow-up.