Rehabilitation professionals’ views on individual peer support interventions for assisting stroke survivors with reintegration into the community: a qualitative study

Abstract

Purpose

We aimed to explore stroke rehabilitation professionals’ understanding and representations of peer support; the benefits they anticipated for patients; and the levers and barriers they perceived to implement the intervention in their practice.

Materials and methods

This qualitative study comprised four focus groups with 21 rehabilitation professionals and four semi-structured interviews. It was held in a French hospital. Interpretation was guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research.

Results

Although professionals had poor knowledge on peer support, they identified many unmet needs of stroke survivors that peer support could meet such as social, emotional and informational support. Main barriers were the lack of human and financial resources, and of linkage between hospital and community professionals, and the fear that peer support would give false hope to survivors if not delivered properly. They showed ambivalence towards patient engagement, acknowledging its importance, but demonstrating top-down attitudes. They also identified potential avenues for the implementation of peer support for stroke survivors.

Conclusions

Our study supports the necessity to involve professionals in the construction of peer-support interventions and to sensitise them to provide patient-centred care. It delivers insights on effective implementation strategies to develop peer support interventions for stroke survivors reintegrating the community.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Stroke survivors experience many difficulties especially when transitioning from hospital to home, in which peer-support could be helpful.

• Success of peer-support interventions rely on the collaboration of healthcare professionals with peer supporters.

• Individual peer-support might be useful for stroke survivors in the following key dimensions: healthcare pathway orientation, social/administrative procedures, emotional support, informational support, informal caregivers support.

• Rehabilitation departments planning to implement individual peer-support, should consider supporting and training both the team and the peer-supporters to work together and adopt partnership postures.

Keywords:

• Peer support
• peer mentoring
• community reintegration
• stroke
• stroke survivor
• rehabilitation professionals
• healthcare professionals

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Sofia Eloussoul and Adèle Perrin for their help with data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a funding from the Hospices Civils de Lyon (young researcher grant).