Research project: Understanding and measuring the burden of supported self-care rehabilitation for people with stroke and their families - NIHR Post-Doctoral Fellowship.
After physiotherapy ends, rehabilitation 'work' is passed to people with stroke and their families, who often feel overwhelmed. Supported Self-Care Rehabilitation (SS-CR) interventions (physiotherapy, assistive-technologies, etc) are being developed but with limited consideration of the burdens they generate. Excessive burdens may reduce people's capacity to cooperate in care and limit recovery. Understanding ‘rehabilitation burden' is vital to providing appropriate support and developing minimally-disruptive interventions. This research will review the literature, conduct interviews, develop a model of SS-CR and design a questionnaire to measure the burden of SS-CR with the aim of minimising the burden of future stroke rehabilitation interventions.