Key result
A specialist mental health nurse can provide essential emotional support for patients and carers experiencing prolonged psychosocial adjustment after returning home following a stroke.
Highlights the importance of community-based emotional support by specialist mental health nurses for stroke patients post-discharge.
May support specialist mental health nurse involvement in post-stroke community care; leaves open need for prospective trials before practice change.
The first of this series of two articles on the importance of emotional support after stroke focused on two examples from hospital-based practice (Bennett et al, 2007). It was recognized that, although support is essential in the period immediately following a stroke, emotional distress may persist long after the person has been discharged from hospital care. It is more likely that the full impact of the stroke will not be experienced by a patient and his/her carers until he/she has returned home; psychosocial adjustment is often gradual and prolonged. A specialist mental health nurse can provide much needed emotional support in this situation.
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Bennett et al. (2007) conducted a review in Stroke. Emotional support by a specialist mental health nurse was evaluated. A specialist mental health nurse can provide essential emotional support for patients and carers experiencing prolonged psychosocial adjustment after returning home following a stroke.
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