Stroke rehabilitation workshops for physiotherapists and occupational therapists
The StrokeEd collaboration is an Australian registered company and education provider. Members of the collaboration offer evidence-based workshops and lectures to improve the skills, knowledge and practice of rehabilitation therapists, and influence the delivery of rehabilitation services to stroke survivors.
This website provides workshop information (see individual listings under each workshop type), lectures and resources for physiotherapists, occupational therapists and other rehabilitation professionals. Stroke survivors may also find some of the information helpful.
Workshop topics include upper and lower limb retraining, balance retraining, coaching skills, increasing amounts of practice (1000 reps), constraint-induced movement therapy and knowledge translation. Workshops are delivered face to face and online. Please contact us if you wish to organise a workshop or go to the calendar if you wish to attend a workshop.
Upper Limb Retraining
- Does the routine use of electrical stimulation after stroke reduce shoulder subluxation and help muscle recovery?
- Does muscle stretching or hand splinting prevent wrist contractures after stroke?
This workshop teaches therapists how to minimise upper limb impairments in people post-stroke, and increase engagement in activities such as picking up a cup and using cutlery to eat. Workshop content is based on research about movement science/motor relearning and evidence-based interventions.
Retraining Lower Limb Skills
- What muscles are essential for sitting and standing balance during reaching?
- Why is acceleration of the trunk forward (ie hip flexion) important for standing up?
- How does hip flexion at the beginning of swing phase contribute to knee flexion?
This workshop teaches therapists how to minimise lower limb impairments in people post-stroke and increase engagement in activities such as sitting, standing up, sitting down and walking. Workshop content is based on research about movement science/motor relearning and evidence-based interventions.
Coaching
- What is the difference between an instruction and a cue?
- What type of feedback is beneficial for learning?
- What can therapists do to motivate people to do more practice?
The workshop addresses a skills-gap identified by health professionals who teach stroke and brain injury survivors to regain/learn new skills. After teaching evidence-based workshops for many years, it became apparent that coaching skills were rarely targeted for peer review. This workshop will provide professionals with knowledge and current evidence about optimal coaching and the opportunity to objectively appraise and practise their coaching skills.
1000 Reps
- How much practice is enough?
- How can therapists increase patient motivation and involvement in practice?
- How can therapists help coach patients with varying levels of motivation?
The aim of this workshop is to recommend strategies that can increase the dosage and intensity of practice in inpatient, outpatient and community rehabilitation settings. The workshop is relevant to diagnoses such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, amputation and hip fracture and will be of interest to physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, allied health assistants and nursing professionals. Evidence is reviewed for the effectiveness of extra practice, and strategies that have been shown to increase practice including one-to-one, semi-supervised and independent practice.
Balance
- Why should people not use their hands for support when doing balance exercises?
- Do walking aids prevent falls?
- How can therapists help people to ‘challenge’ their balance while being safe?
This balance workshop has been developed following the work by Professor Cathie Sherrington and colleagues that provided clear exercise guidelines to successfully improve balance and prevent falls. Despite this evidence, implementing these guidelines in clinical practice continues to be a major clinical challenge. Therapists have asked the StrokeEd collaboration about how to implement effective balance strategies that are challenging, of sufficiently high dosage and safe. This workshop aims to assist clinicians to develop evidence-based solutions for people with balance difficulties.
Knowledge Translation
- Why is translating research findings and evidence into practice so challenging for health teams?
- What are common barriers and enablers to behavior change, and how do you address the barriers?
- Which behaviour change intervention should you use and in in what circumstances?
- How do you measure change in practice ?
This workshop provides an introduction to knowledge translation and explains the process of implementing evidence. Examples of common research-practice gaps will be presented from Australian stroke audits and guideline recommendations. Therapists will be invited to identify research-practice gaps relevant to their practice, such as underuse of seated reach/balance retraining beyond arms reach, upper limb constraint-induced movement therapy or electrical stimulation.
The StrokeEd Collaboration also presents lectures and hosts webinars from time to time.
Look for the above symbol in the calendar for these events.
“We inspire therapists to be good coaches, to help stroke survivors reach their potential and continue improving with challenging goals, judicious feedback and by measuring progress.
If therapists and stroke survivors persist, recovery will continue.”
The Strokeed Team
Participant Feedback
Our patient made an improvement since yesterday! Our new patient provided the opportunity to work on new skill acquisition. After we changed our approach, it was great to see progress – the progress our patient made was exciting.
Excellent suggestions about treatment and environmental setup to minimize compensations, and increase out patients ability to set up their practice at home.
I think the pre-reading was great. Relevant to the course and it made me motivated to do some anatomy revision.
Removed the fear of using electrical stimulation (as our department hadn’t started using it yet)
The workshop opened my eyes up to how little I push my patients to work longer at one specific task, which is more challenging to them.
Lots of excellent examples for strength training; easy practical ideas.
I liked seeing REAL patient improvements that could be achieved in one day.
Presenters were very approachable – advice and feedback from presenters very helpful.
Photos in the workbooks were very clear in explaining set-up and movements. Provides practical examples to use in future.
Made me feel more confident to use a mirror box and mental practice.
I did not know about constraint therapy so appreciated definitions and research.
Great to work with patients – I think the 2 hours each day was about right.
Challenged my ideas about ‘tone’
The most beneficial course I have attended and very practical, so I feel confident to apply information tomorrow (at work)
I loved the practical component and also the verbal explanation, photos and demo of treatment ideas Great to work with real patients and get to see if any improvements occur from day to day (which they did).
Presenters
Contact Us
Contact Information
Mobile: +61 419 447 738
5 Shepherd St, Ashfield
NSW 2131 Australia
ABN: 54 646 475 621