Feasibility of a Breakfast Group Intervention for Acute Stroke Units, to Provide Intensive Eating and Drinking Interventions as Well as Integrated Multi-disciplinary Team Working and Personalized Care

Current evidence shows that many people living with stroke experience major problems with eating and drinking. We know that this can lead to malnutrition, dehydration, reduced muscle strength and depression. It can also lead to longer stays in hospital, reduced ability to participate in rehabilitation and in the long term poorer quality of life. People living with stroke say the pleasure gained from eating and drinking changes after a stroke. They describe feeling embarrassed and ashamed and report a loss of self-confidence.

Therefore, being able to eat and drink independently is essential for health and well-being. People with stroke welcome opportunities to address eating and drinking problems early in their rehabilitation and would like more opportunities to practice the necessary skills needed, to regain independence. Early rehabilitation interventions have the potential to improve long-term outcomes by providing strategies, assistive devices and rehabilitation as early as possible in stroke recovery.

Health care professionals are using breakfast groups to provide opportunities to practice preparation and consumption of food and drink with enabling support. Consultations with patients and health care professionals have found that the processes involved in breakfast group interventions lack rigour and multi-disciplinary team coordination, thus leading to uncertainty about what outcomes are achieved for each patient.

This co-designed study aims to find out if it is possible to improve patient outcomes by providing more intensive interventions in a breakfast group format delivered by a range of health care professionals over five days of the week. The intervention will be co-designed with a stakeholder group comprising of patients, carers and stroke unit health care professionals supported by an advisory group, comprising of experts in the field. The intervention will be delivered in three sites and it will include a tool kit to support the integrated assessment, care plan and outcome measures.