Considerations for establishing community liaison for stroke: From a rehabilitation perspective

Each stage of stoke requires different approach in treatment. In the acute phase, treatment is centered on the "disease" itself according to the critical path specific to the disease. In the convalescent phase, treatment is centered on the "impairments" through rehabilitation programs to treat functional impairments such as motor paralysis and aphasia as well as disability in walking and activities of daily living (ADL). In the chronic phase, the focus is on the "life quality," and patients receive disease management mainly from primary care physicians to prevent the recurrence of stroke and to control comorbidities, while taking advantages of social welfare services and undergoing rehabilitation management that aims at preventing the deterioration of walking ability and ADL. Since the approach to stroke patients shifts from "disease" to "impairment" and then to "life quality" according to the disease stage, therefore, it is necessary to formulate a system that facilitate appropriate treatment and care across disease stages with mutual understanding and consent among involved parties. Such system will entail close collaborative relationships among the various care facilities to share awareness, information, assessment procedures, etc., and should provide rational explanations to patients and their families who transfer from one facility to another. In this regard, a community liaison path can serve as a tool to smoothly connect various facilities designed for particular stages of disease. This paper describes the concept of a community liaison path for stroke from a perspective of rehabilitation medicine.