Stroke is an acute neurologic injury whereby the blood supply to a part of the brain is interrupted and can create as sudden loss of neuronal function. There are the three types of strokes
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Did You Know?
- 50,000 Canadians have a stroke each year
- On average, a stroke occurs every 45 seconds and someone dies every 3 minutes
- Stroke is the 4rd leading cause of death in North America — 20 to 30% of people that have a stroke die
- About 1 out of every 15 people that die — die of stroke
- 300,000 Canadian live with the effects of a stroke
- Stroke is the leading cause of Adult disability — 2/3 of people who have a stroke will struggle with moderate to severe disability
- 4/5 families will have to deal with stroke at some point in their lifetime
- 20% of the people who have strokes are under 50
- Strokes happen at any age, from infancy to the elderly
- Our youngest member is an Infant! For every 10,000 Canadian children under the age of 19, there are 6.7 strokes
- Over 2,500 people in Ottawa will have a stroke this year. Over 50,000 in the Ottawa area are affected by stroke
- Stroke can affect patients physically, mentally, emotionally, or a combination of the three
- Disability affects 75% of stroke survivors enough to decrease their employability
Stroke is a Women’s Issue!
- More women die each year from stroke than from breast cancer
- There are more young women under the age of 45 who have a stroke than those who are diagnosed with breast cancer and HIV combined
- 80% of the people who provide care to stroke survivors are women
- Caregivers are stressed and overburdened
- If women have a stroke — The length of stay in hospital is usually longer for women than men because they do not have families that advocate for them! You need to have an able bodied caregiver to care for you at home! The longer hospital stay is due to social and medical factors; it is not due to differences in the severity of the strokes or neurological status
- Men are 6 times more likely to go home or to rehabilitation. Women tend to be transferred to chronic care facilities. This may be due to the absence of a spouse or partner to act as a caregiver
Stroke Needs To Be More Visible!
- Within the medical care system, there are no universal standards of care for those who have suffered a stroke
- Protocols for stroke treatment vary widely from one facility to the next
- Worldwide — less than 8% of the advocacy organizations budgets are spent on Stroke Advocacy (eg. Heart and Stroke Foundation, American Heart and Stroke Association)
- Stroke rehabilitation levels are declining as health care costs increase
- In 1994 35% of people who had a stroke were admitted for rehabilitation for an average of 4 months time
- By 1997 only 25% of people are admitted for rehabilitation and the average length of time was less than 2 months
- In 2005, less than 20% of people are admitted to in patent rehabilitation and the average length of stay is 4 weeks
- This is not because there is some new paradigm for stroke treatment — in fact intensive rehabilitation has been shown to dramatically increase function but is ignored because Stroke is not visible
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