Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Stroke is a life-altering event that can leave a person with a significant physical and cognitive disability that affects their ability to be independent in the community. A promising therapy to help people with stroke recover their health and function is aquatic therapy. Aquatic therapy is where people with stroke undergo physical rehabilitation in a pool with a qualified therapist to help them regain their strength, balance, and ability to move independently. Although there are several accessible therapy pools and aquatic therapy instructors across Ontario, it is unknown how much stroke survivors are accessing aquatic therapy to help with their recovery. To help people with stroke get a better understanding about aquatic therapy and to support their ability to access it in the community, I am proposing to work with stroke survivors and clinical staff to develop a web-based tool-kit that will provide important information about aquatic therapy. To achieve this goal, I will first interview people with stroke and clinical staff about their thoughts and understanding of aquatic therapy, what might prevent them from using it, and what supports they need to be able to access it in the community (PHASE I). Using the interview data from Phase I, I will then partner with stroke survivors and clinical staff to develop a list of strategies and resources to help people with stroke become more aware of aquatic therapy and how to better access and use it (PHASE II). Finally, I will work with people with stroke and clinicians to develop and pilot test a web-based tool-kit that will help people be able to access information about aquatic therapy in their community (PHASE III). As a result of this work, people with stroke will be able to learn about aquatic therapy and how to better access it so they can optimize their recovery process.