Poster The Joint Annual Meeting of the Stroke Society of Australasia (SSA) and Smartstrokes 2023

Championing Better Care for Young People with Stroke:  Australia’s New Young Stroke Service (#128)

Karen N Borschmann 1 , Vincent Thijs 1 2 , Daniel Capurro 3 , Dana Wong 4 , Emma Power 5 , Natasha Lannin 6 , Melita Giummarra 6 , tanya Rose 5 , Dominique Cadilhac 1 7 , Brooke Parsons 1 , Lisa Murphy 8 , Kate S Hayward 9 , Toni Withiel 10 , Amy Brodtmann 11 , Christopher Bladin 12 , Maria Crotty 13 14 , Julie Bernhardt 1
  1. Florey Neuroscience Institutes, Heidelberg, 3084, Australia
  2. Department of Neurology, Austin Hospital, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia
  3. School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
  4. Department of Psychology, Counselling & Therapy , La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
  5. University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  6. Department of Neuroscience, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  7. Department of Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  8. Stroke Foundation, Melbourne, Vic, Australia
  9. Department of Physiotherapy, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  10. Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, Vic, Australia
  11. Cognitive Health Initiative, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  12. Stroke Services, Ambulance Victoria , Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  13. College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  14. Rehabilitation, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Background: Too many young people with stroke report unmet needs related to their age and life stage, and health services for young people are very limited.  To improve access to appropriate services for young people with stroke, we are building a dedicated, co-designed, digitally enabled health service. Two test sites are in Victoria and South Australia, with the ultimate goal of expanding nationally.

Aims: Key aims are to establish a digital platform to engage with young adults with stroke, establish a suite of screening and assessment tools, validate new clinical pathways, and establish a curated patient dataset to inform future clinical research. We outline 18-month achievements and planned evaluations of our 5-year project.

Methods: Existing services have been mapped, and evaluations of communication accessibility, health economics, service provision, digital platform, and user acceptability of our new service have commenced.

Results: The project group comprises over 70 investigators, staff and consultant groups of people with lived experience of stroke, and General Practitioners. Ethical and clinical approvals have been received, including for the collation of core measures and clinical processes of all users for evaluation purposes. Our first patient was enrolled in March 2023, and the digital platform and service officially launched in May.

Conclusion: This new service will fill critical gaps in diagnosis, treatment and ongoing support for young adults with stroke. Ongoing evaluations will inform clinical policies and practice, and critical considerations for sustainability of the service beyond the life of our project.