title: Social work after stroke: identifying demand for support by recording stroke patients' and carers' needs in different phases after stroke.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous studies examining social work interventions in stroke often lack information on content, methods and timing over different phases of care including acute hospital, rehabilitation and out-patient care. This limits our ability to evaluate the impact of social work in multidisciplinary stroke care. We aimed to quantify social-work-related support in stroke patients and their carers in terms of timing and content, depending on the different phases of stroke care.
  
  
  METHODS
  We prospectively collected and evaluated data derived from a specialized "Stroke-Service-Point" (SSP); a "drop in" center and non-medical stroke assistance service, staffed by social workers and available to all stroke patients, their carers and members of the public in the metropolitan region of Berlin, Germany.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Enquiries from 257 consenting participants consulting the SSP between March 2010 and April 2012 related to out-patient and in-patient services, therapeutic services, medical questions, medical rehabilitation, self-help groups and questions around obtaining benefits. Frequency of enquiries for different topics depended on whether patients were located in an in-patient or out-patient setting. The majority of contacts involved information provision. While the proportion of male and female patients with stroke was similar, about two thirds of the carers contacting the SSP were female.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The social-work-related services provided by a specialized center in a German metropolitan area were diverse in terms of topic and timing depending on the phase of stroke care. Targeting the timing of interventions might be important to increase the impact of social work on patient's outcome.
authors.affiliation: Research Group "Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services in Stroke"(CEHRiS), Center for Stroke Research Berlin (CSB), Charité University Medicine, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany. inken.padberg@charite.de.
authors.forename: Inken
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Padberg
authors.affiliation: Center for Stroke Research Berlin (CSB), Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany.|Berliner Schlaganfall-Allianz e.V., Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Knispel
authors.affiliation: Center for Stroke Research Berlin (CSB), Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany.|Berliner Schlaganfall-Allianz e.V., Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zöllner
authors.affiliation: Center for Stroke Research Berlin (CSB), Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany.|Berliner Schlaganfall-Allianz e.V., Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Meike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sieveking
authors.affiliation: Research Group "Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services in Stroke"(CEHRiS), Center for Stroke Research Berlin (CSB), Charité University Medicine, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.affiliation: Center for Stroke Research Berlin (CSB), Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Steinbrink
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Epidemiology and Biometry, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.|Clinical Trial Center Würzburg, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.|Comprehensive Heart Failure Center, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter U
authors.initials: PU
authors.lastname: Heuschmann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.|Research Group "Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services in Stroke"(CEHRiS), Center for Stroke Research Berlin (CSB), Charité University Medicine, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Wellwood
authors.affiliation: Center for Stroke Research Berlin (CSB), Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany.|Berliner Schlaganfall-Allianz e.V., Berlin, Germany.|Neurocure Clinical Research Center, Department of Neurology, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meisel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001604:Berlin; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010045:Outpatients; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012944:Social Support; D012947:Social Work; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation
keywords: Patient-centered care; Rehabilitation; Social support; Social work; Stroke