Community neuro rehab

After experiencing an acute stroke, patients come to the 20-bed Oxfordshire Stroke Rehabilitation Unit at Abingdon Community Hospital as part of their care pathway. They normally stay at the service, run by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, for around four weeks before they’re discharged home or to other locations in the community.

Follow-up rehab is usually provided by the county’s community therapy service, but with the Covid-19 pandemic in March came a national focus on patients being discharged from hospital, and rehab services were put on the backburner.

  In Portsmouth, the local Headway has had a difficult time in recent months. Two service users have died from Covid-19, and another has been sectioned and taken to a secure facility after their mental health took a downturn.

There’s been a huge spike in mental health problems, and a few service users, who wouldn’t have done so under normal circumstances, have got in trouble with the police.

Most service users are gradually building their contact with the outside world again, with Headway’s help.

When lockdown began in March, service manager Deborah Robinson decided the best course of action was to identify the most vulnerable users and make sure she and her team maintained regular contact with them. The next challenge was gradually exposing them to more contact as restrictions began to ease.