Surviving a stroke

Growth and recovery

We believe in empowering our Stroke Survivors to master and take control of their health and wellbeing for good, through helping them achieve a clear sense of purpose, autonomy and mastery.
We envision a Personal Training and Physiotherapy service which compliment each other to promote and actively facilitates sustainable behaviour change among the general population and post-traumatic growth among ambulatory chest, heart and stroke survivors in Edinburgh.

Between 12,500 and 15,000 people have a stroke each year in Scotland. One-third of these people will die, one-third will recover well and the remaining a third will survive but with impairments which may affect their physical and psychosocial health and wellbeing.
There are about 110,000 stroke survivors in Scotland, many of whom live in Edinburgh.

According to the Stroke Association (2017), of those that survive their stroke:

• 1 in 4 live alone.
• 43% of stroke survivors wanted more therapy support once discharged home and physiotherapy was cited as the biggest priority with 29% wanting more services.
• 18% have had access to care services reduced or withdrawn, despite their needs increasing or remaining the same.
• 39% of stroke survivors are not offered an assessment – a gateway into community services.

It is well established that exercise after stroke, services should be ongoing, not time-limited, and thus long-term physical activity behaviour change is required.

Furthermore, it should be recognised from the outset that a significant proportion of stroke survivors would not be able to move on to mainstream exercise provision, without a specialised intervention upon discharge from the NHS.

30% of stroke survivors will experience clinical depression and many others will experience anxiety and other mood disorders.

Together these are associated with higher rates of mortality, long-term disability, hospital readmission, suicide and higher utilisation of outpatient services if untreated.

Carers of people with stroke are also more likely to experience serious psychological problems and strain. It is well established that exercise after stroke services should be ongoing, not time-limited, in order to receive the numerous physical and mental benefits of exercise.

Thus long-term physical activity behaviour change is required. Sports massage Edinburgh is one positive step forward.

At this moment in time, we work with two-stroke survivors who are progressing impressively well. In the new year, we will be opening our doors to two more stroke survivors. Due to the high demand of each stroke survivor, we are only able to accept individuals who meet the following criteria:

• A primary clinical diagnosis of stroke
• Able to walk indoors with or without a walking aid but have self-reported difficulty with or require help on stairs, slopes or uneven surfaces.
• Able to attend Anytime Fitness, Canonmills, EH3 5DA.
• Have the cognitive capacity and communication ability sufficient to participate in the sessions and group classes.