Community Stroke Rehabilitation Teams: Providing Home-Based Stroke Rehabilitation in Ontario, Canada

Background: Community stroke rehabilitation teams (CSRTs) provide a community-based, interdisciplinary approach to stroke rehabilitation. Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of these teams with respect to client outcomes. Methods: Functional, psychosocial, and caregiver outcome data. were available at intake, discharge from the program, and six-month follow-up. Repeated measures analysis of covariance was performed to assess patient changes between time points for each outcome measure. Results: A total of 794 clients met the inclusion criteria for analysis (54.4% male, mean age 68.5±13.0 years). Significant changes were found between intake and discharge on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale total score (p=0.017), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Anxiety subscale (pConclusions: Results indicate that the community stroke rehabilitation teams were effective at improving the functional and psychosocial recovery of patients after stroke. Importantly, these gains were maintained at 6 months postdischarge from the program. A home-based, stroke-specific multidisciplinary rehabilitation program should be considered when accessibility to outpatient services is limited.