BMC Neurol: Social Work Support and Unmet Social Needs in Post-Stroke Life: A Cross-Section exploration Study

Stroke sufferers are often affected by long-term disability and need sever social problemsRelatively few considerations are given to the social rehabilitation and return to work of patients, access to social benefits, participation in daily activities, maintenance of contact with family and friends, and the support required to organize financial mattersIn our study, we aim to investigate whether existing tools adequately document social needsWe analyzed the social support currently provided in post-stroke long-term care and whether unmet social needs were related to quality of life, caregiver burden, overall function and disabilityOur analysis is part of the Post-Stroke Care Management Study (MAS-I), a cross-sectional exploratory study of patient needs for 2-3 years after the first strokeThe assessment tools include the Nikolaus score (social status), EuroQoL (quality of life), the German household carer burden scale (caregiver burden), the revised Rankin scale (disability/dependency), the stroke impact scale (functional ity and disability) and the stroke survivor's needs questionnaire (unmet needs)results totaled 57 patients were included in MAS-I, of which 10 were classified as in urgent need of socio-economic support based on Nikolaus-scorePatients who were below normal With A30% of patients have never received professional social supportSocial worker contact occurs mainly during hospitalization in emergency hospitals or rehabilitation facilitiesOnly four patients (11%) reported long-term support after dischargeIn addition to contact with social workers during acute period of care, 43% of patients' needs in long-term aftercare were not metOf all patients included in MAS-I, 40% were recommended for social intervention after an in-depth analysis of their situationFinally, we see that unmet social needs are associated with a reduced quality of life and an increased burden on caregiversin general, our data show that the social care needs of long-term stroke patients are not being metScreening tools such as Nikolaus-score, where social needs are not met, do not report patient needs as a whole