We are committed to providing stroke survivors and carers across Victoria with access to the support services they need to re-engage with their community.
We are committed to providing stroke survivors and carers across Victoria with access to the support services they need to re-engage with their community.
A stroke is sudden and shocking. It can affect every part of your life. And your life might look quite different to how it was before. Because a stroke happens so quickly, people sometimes leave the hospital without knowing what's happened or processing their feelings about it. When you feel ready, we have lots of information to help. The information on these pages is for stroke survivors over the age of 18. There's a dedicated area for information on childhood stroke.
When someone close to you leaves hospital after a stroke, you may suddenly find yourself needing to give them help and support. You may have lots of questions and be feeling lots of emotions. This is normal. This page outlines the help and support available to someone supporting a stroke survivor. It is intended for those people supporting someone over the age of 18. We have a dedicated area for those supporting childhood stroke survivors.
Childhood stroke can affect babies (including in the womb), children and young people. Several hundred children are diagnosed with strokes every year. https://www.stroke.org.uk/stroke/childhood/about
Our Stroke Support Centres will bridge the gap from discharge to community re-engagement. Through effective connections with community, general practitioners and allied-health providers, we aim to assist each stroke survivor with their longer-term recovery. We do this through non-clinical, community-based support and self-led recovery including communication, mood, mobility and community engagement.
The Stroke Association of Victoria is a dedicated community-based support service for people re-entering their lives after having a stroke.
We have developed an online stroke support program, which is run via the ZOOM platform and is open to stroke survivors and their carers across Victoria, no matter where they are located. Our online program provides stroke survivors and their carers with access to skill development activities, educational talks, and social connection with peers.
The Stroke Association of Victoria has recognised the need for making stroke support more geographically accessible.
Our Centres will provide activities on a rotating monthly schedule and are structured around a strengths-based, or an interest-based approach. Strength-based activities work with individual members and their own capacity/level of ability, such as our upper limb recovery program, using ableX & ableM devices. Interest-based activities are activities that individual members have identified as an existing or new opportunity to engage in. Group activities include mindfulness, meditation, cooking, art therapy, singing and low-impact sports, such as chair-based yoga; all aimed at self-led recovery and empowerment outcomes. Some of these group activites are also offered through our online stroke support program.
According to Australian Institute of Health & Welfare, stroke kills more women than breast cancer and more men than prostate cancer.
From 2017-2019, SAV, in partnership with Deakin University, and funded by AMP Foundation, undertook an action research project with working age stroke survivors in Geelong. The project resulted in a 21% increase in post-stroke employment for program participants (71% of program participants returned to work compared to just 50% of the general working-age stroke population). We aim to expand on this success by providing stroke survivors across Victoria with individualised support to further their education, or return to meaningful employment; paid or voluntary.
Deloitte Access Economics states the financial cost of stroke in Australia is estimated to be $5 billion each year.