National action plan for stroke

The National Stroke Foundation last week launched a National Action Plan for Stroke in response to significant community concern about the way stroke is managed in Australia.

The three year, $198m policy response outlines a raft of measures to tackle Australia’s second biggest killer, a disease that leaves thousands of Australians dead and disabled each year and which has been ignored by successive Australian federal governments.

Dr Erin Lalor, joined with 31 year old stroke survivor and mother of one, Lina Brohier, last Friday in calling on the federal government to fund the five key policy proposals in the National Action Plan and set Australia on the path towards delivery of world best standard stroke care.

“Stroke has been a designated national health priority since 1996 but has never received designated funding for a stroke strategy”, Dr Lalor said.

“We pride ourselves on the quality of our healthcare system in this country and yet stroke care continues to fall short of worldbest standard with no commitment to improvement”.

According to Dr Lalor, for $3 per Australian, per year, we can start to improve stroke care, reduce the death and reduce the disability.

Throughout this year, the Stroke Foundation has borne witness to an increasing groundswell of concern about the quality and breadth of stroke care through a series of national forums, stroke survivor surveys and the first  Stroke Survivor and Carer Summit at Parliament House in Canberra.

Support for quality stroke rehabilitation is one focus of the National Action Plan which also calls for more and better quality stroke units, support to raise awareness of the signs of stroke and investment in infrastructure and resources to improve access to stroke units for Australians outside major cities.

The Stroke Foundation has reportedly started talks with the federal government and the Opposition about the urgent need for stroke investment and was hopeful that commitments would be forthcoming.

New international research shows people aged over 65 years, with high psychosocial distress, face increased risk of stroke.

In the 10 year study, researchers followed 4,120 people aged 65 years and over in the Chicago Health and Ageing Project for rates of death and stroke incidents. Those with the most psychosocial distress had three times the risk of death from stroke and a 54% increased risk of first hospitalisation from stroke compared to those least distressed.

“People should be aware that stress and negative emotions often increase with age,” Susan Everson-Rose, study senior author and associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, said.

“Family members and caregivers need to recognise these emotions have a profound effect on health.

“It’s important to pay attention when older people complain of distress and recognise that these symptoms have physical effects on health outcome and clearly affect stroke risk,” she said.