East Sussex stroke services "stretched"

East Sussex stroke services "stretched"

11:00am Wednesday 18th March 2009

By Siobhan Ryan, Health Reporter »

The care given to people with strokes in East Sussex is inconsistent, with services stretched to capacity, a watchdog report claims.

East Sussex health overview and scrutiny committee has published a review into the stroke services provided across the county.

The report outlines what hospital and rehabilitation care is available at the moment and what improvements should be made.

Almost 1,160 people were asked to take part in a survey for the report.

The results found the experience of patients and carers varied across the county and services were under pressure.

Conclusions highlighted the need for the public to be made more aware of the causes of stroke and to recognise the symptoms.

A recent national awareness campaign was welcomed but the report calls for local primary care trusts to complement it by targeting specific areas of the county.

The report also said GPs and other frontline health and social care professionals need to be more effective at recognising stroke and more training should be provided for them.

Better follow up care is also needed to ensure people get the regular health checks and medicine they need to reduce the risk of further strokes.

The report said: “The elderly profile of the East Sussex population demands that stroke care is treated as a priority and that the county should be at the forefront of best practice.”

The committee will discuss the report at its next meeting tomorrow at County Hall, Lewes, at 10am.

Copies of the agenda can be found at www.eastsussexhealth.org.

Stroke facts

Stroke facts for East Sussex

2:52pm Thursday 19th March 2009 ARGUS

NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald and NHS Hastings and Rother welcome the report by the East Sussex Health and Overview Scrutiny Committee on local stroke services. (The Argus, March 18).

It provides valuable feedback which we can use to further improve the services on offer across the county.

Over 1,500 people in East Sussex suffered a stroke or mini-stroke (known as a TIA) in 2007/08.

Strokes can have a massive impact on the lives of people who suffer them, as well as their families and friends.

We want to give local people world-class stroke services which are co-ordinated, consistent across the county and high-quality.

To this end, we have recently launched our new East Sussex Stroke Strategy aimed at helping people to avoid having a stroke, as well as giving them more support and better treatment if they do suffer one.

This three-year plan has been developed after canvassing the views of patients, carers, members of the public and health and social care staff.

The new strategy will be focusing on ten key areas of development, including: l Raising awareness of stroke among the public, as well as health and social care staff l Preventing more strokes and TIAs by spotting the danger signs earlier, via GPs, for example l Rapid assessment and treatment of strokes and TIAs l High quality specialist rehabilitation l Long-term care and support.

By implementing new plans across the ten key areas, NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald and NHS Hastings and Rother will be able to prevent more strokes and TIAs, help people who have had a stroke to make better recoveries and enable people to receive care and support closer to their own homes.

Sarah Valentine, director of commissioning and primary care
NHS East Sussex Downs & Weald and NHS Hastings & Rother

refreshing the blog

we will be upgrading soon -- hopefully without losing data

books about aphasia

The Man Who Lost His Language by Sheila Hale
Allen Lane, New York, 2002. Hard Cover. . From the DJ: The Man WHo Lost His Language is both a love story and the story of a quest for medical and scientific knowledge about a common but little-understood illness that could attack any of us, as it attacked the author's husband, John Hale, one of the world's leading historians. A month after he finished writing the book that turned out to be his master-piece, Hale suffered a stroke which deprived him of the power to speak or to write. This beautifully, often dramatically, written book conveys with raw honesty the extremes of emotion and behaviour - rage and contentment, desperation and dignity - that affect people disabled by stroke and those who love and care for them. It gives an accessible account of what is known about stroke and what imparied speech tells us about the relationship between language and intelligence - and how much we all communicate without words. Shiela Hale convincingly and grippingly brings together the personal and the universal. The result is a small, unclassifiable masterpiece

extracts SPEAKABILITY GROUP TALK Spring 2009 Edition

BRIGHTON AND HOVE GROUP
The Group is looking forward to the May Fair in Patcham, where
they will be holding a fundraising stall selling cakes and bric-a-brac.
They will also display Speakability leaflets and badges to
raise awareness of Aphasia and the work that we do. During
May, the members will also be visiting Bentley Wildfowl and
Motor Museum, set on a beautiful Sussex estate.

SUSSEX GROUP
In April, the members of the SASH Group welcomed Lindsey Coleman, Speakability’s Aphasia
Projects Assistant, to their meeting. The Group discussed the campaign for this year’s ‘Speak
About Aphasia Month’ and the possibility of holding a coffee morning. Members also brought in
some of their favourite objects, which provoked some lively conversation! Next month, the Group will be meeting in their local garden centre. Just a reminder that Roy Pennington, the Group’s Treasurer, has set up a blog at the following Web address:
http://sussexaphasiaself-help.blogspot.com/

Spring edition of Group Talk

Recent contact from HQ:

Dear Group Members,

It has been lovely speaking to many of you over the last few months and hearing about your upcoming trips and planned fundraising events for ‘Speak About Aphasia Month’.

For all those who have returned their completed ‘Speak About Aphasia Month’ forms, we will be sending out the SAAM pack to you within the next fortnight. This will include leaflets, badges, a press release and petition. If your Group hasn’t yet had a chance to discuss ‘Speak About Aphasia Month’ there is still plenty of time. Your support is hugely appreciated and is so important in making this year’s campaign a success.

Please find attached the Spring edition of Group Talk (see later post, when I can extract it from my e-mail bucket: Blog Ed ), together with a copy of a BOARD GAME kindly provided by the Poole Group.

Paper copies of the newsletter will shortly be sent to all Group Chairs, Secretaries or main contacts. Please accept our apologies for the delay in posting this edition of Group Talk – we have been having problems with our franking machine, but hope to have it sorted very soon!

The deadline for the Summer edition of Group Talk is Friday 17^th July.

Sending you all our very best wishes,

Lindsey

Lindsey Coleman
Aphasia Projects Assistant
Speakability Charity No. 295094 Telephone: 020 7261 9572

Address: 1 Royal Street , London , SE1 7LL
Website: www.speakability.org.uk

May meeting Wyevale Garden Centre at 3pm

On Tuesday 12th May, we will meet in the café at the Wyevale Garden Centre at 3pm for a cup of tea and a cake after you’ve looked at the plants and all the things for the garden - and perhaps before you purchase those plants you picked!
PLEASE RING OR EMAIL JEANNETTE BY 6TH MAY AND LET HER KNOW WHETHER YOU CAN COME OR NOT.
ADDRESS AND EMAIL ADDRESS AT THE END OF THIS LETTER.

APHASIADISIAC event festival

yes, I got to the event last night and discovered it was for tomorrow (i.e. now) -- the body clock gets upset by fake Bank Holidays -- at least it was not the day before --
anyway, it was what is said on the tin: modern ballet with knobs-no, or rather with rubber bricks (two lovers get walled in and out)..........
I was looking forward to seeing how the fractured speech patterns that is aphasia would be symbolised in dance, given that the bit of the brain what gets mashed up effects both speech and mobility: would that be reflected in the dance?
a little bit -- there were occasional references to "no-yes" and other wrong words experiences (the coat put on backwards...) -- otherwise, it traded on the word "aphasia" rather than exploring the reality which is aphasia....

Traffic Penalty Tribunals and Ballet

Ballet, Theatre and Traffic Penalty Tribunals:

I went to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal a few days ago at Brighton Race Course to remind me how disabled-friendly it was (very good, though the wheel-chair loo as a long way away) and the kind of cases they deal with (on one case, the Adjudicator reminded the Council that they have discretion to cancel if mitigating circumstances warrant it -- they agreed to drop it.....) and it was free.
And tonight, I am going to the Ballet about Aphasia (see previously blogged) and it costs £10.
A lot of council and NGO meetings I get to are a bit like theatre and they are free, too.

See
http://www.trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=4126&documentID=132