Purpose: To identify barriers and facilitators to accessing post-stroke rehabilitation services six months after discharge from the stroke unit of a Brazilian public hospital.
Materials and methods: This cross-sectional and descriptive study collected sociodemographic and clinical-functional data during hospitalization. Then, barriers and facilitators for accessing the post-stroke rehabilitation services were collected six months after discharge. We considered economic conditions and displacement, the quality and organization of post-stroke rehabilitation services, and personal conditions.
Results: A total of 174 patients were included. Among the 20 aspects analyzed, 17 (85.0%) were reported as facilitators, while three (15.0%) were as barriers. The identified barriers included financial income available for healthcare (49.4%), waiting time to schedule or to be seen (47.0%), and process to scheduling (45.4%). The main facilitators (> 79.0%) were the expectation of the patient with the treatment and assistance from family and friends. Moreover, most patients indicated as facilitators all aspects related to the quality of post-stroke rehabilitation services.
Conclusion: Access to post-stroke rehabilitation services presented more facilitators than barriers. Public policies to subsidize health costs, optimize waiting time, and process for scheduling post-stroke rehabilitation services should be considered to reduce barriers. Likewise, human and financial resources must promote the facilitators.
Keywords: Stroke; access to rehabilitation services; barriers; facilitators; stroke rehabilitation.
Public policies to subsidize health costs, optimize waiting times and scheduling in post-stroke rehabilitation services should be considered to facilitate access to rehabilitation services for post-stroke patients.The involvement of family and friends in the treatment of post-stroke patients should be encouraged.Patients’ motivation and positive expectations can facilitate access to post-stroke rehabilitation services.