Stroke centre a first for Leeside
Cork’s first centre providing crucial support to stroke survivors and their families will open its doors tomorrow, Friday, on World Stroke Day.
The new Cork Stroke Support Centre will be located in a former call centre on Bessboro Road near Mahon.
The centre will be operated by Leeside charity Cork Stroke Support and is the first of its kind in Cork, offering invaluable support to stroke survivors as they transition from hospital to home.
These supports will include counselling, physio and peer support and will be delivered by volunteer health workers at the charity.
The group was formed in 2010 by a number of health professionals and stroke survivors and their families in response to a lack of supports in place for survivors after they have been discharged from hospital.
The charity initially met once a month at St Finbarr’s Hospital but as the need for its services grew the meetings were increased to once a week.
Speaking to the Cork Independent, charity chairperson Dan Cronin, whose father died in 2017 as the result of a stroke, said there is still a worrying lack of information and support for stroke survivors.
Mr Cronin said: “My father had a stroke in 2014. When someone has a stroke, you first have to go through the whole hospital process, so we look at the medical side of it and we don't think about post-hospital discharge. Suddenly you're faced with that situation – ‘How do I get my house ready, my room ready?’.
He added: “If we can engage with stroke survivors’ families pre-hospital discharge, it's going to make it an awful lot easier for them once the stroke survivor is ready to go home. Part of our strategic plan is to build a referral pathway from hospital so that families will have a better understanding before a stroke survivor is actually discharged from hospital.”
The new premises on Bessboro Road has undergone significant renovations over the past number of months in order to be ready for tomorrow’s official opening, all of which were done on a voluntary basis.
These include the installation of a new kitchen and dining area, the conversion of toilets into wheelchair accessible toilets, and the conversion of one of the rooms into a clinical assessment room where nurses can meet with stroke survivors and their families and assess their specific needs.
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