Community Supports

Community Supports

Patient Journey Map for Stroke Survivors & Families in the South East

For information, please click on the following link Patient Journey Map

Stroke Support Groups in Southeastern Ontario (Brochures)

Aphasia Conversation Groups

Aphasia Conversation Groups are being offered in Kingston, Perth, Brockville and Belleville. For further information, please see below.

The Quinte Aphasia Conversation Group is a gathering of adults aged 35-88 who have difficulty getting their message out (expressive aphasia) and/or taking a message in (receptive aphasia). Collaboratively hosted by Quinte & District Rehabilitation and Community Care for South Hastings, the group is facilitated by a Speech-Language Pathologist.  Meeting once a week for eight weeks during a fall and spring session, the group shares experiences, learns more about aphasia, supports each other and practices communicating. For Stroke Awareness Month in 2018, the group helped create this video as a way to enhance public and health care provider awareness of aphasia and to highlight key messages about what it’s like to live with aphasia. 

  • Click here to view the video

Elyse Shumway is a Speech-Language Pathologist who specializes in communication disorders. Elyse works for the Aphasia Institute as the Manager of Clinical and Education Services, and as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Toronto, all while maintaining her role in private practice. Elyse was the keynote speaker for the recent Aphasia Advocacy event "The Right to Accessible Communication with Aphasia: It's a Basic Human Right".

  • Click here to see Elyse's presentation.

Stroke Specific Community Exercise Groups (Posters)

Stroke-Specific Day Program

Interactive Community Resources Websites

Southeast Healthline

The Stroke Network of Southeastern Ontario, in partnership with the South East Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) and the SouthEasthealthline.ca, has produced an online database of services available to people with stroke.  This database includes information on rehabilitation, transportation, community services, psychosocial support, recreation, adapted equipment, home renovation and income assistance and has been designed to provide information on these topics and many others through a user-friendly format.  Persons with stroke and their families as well as health care providers will find the site to be an invaluable resource.  The site may be accessed by:

FASTlinks

An interactive system navigation tool has been created by the Centre for Studies in Aging and Health to help healthcare providers and the public to search for the services across Southeastern Ontario that might be useful in recovery following conditions that include stroke. The database includes outpatient and community-based rehabilitation services and community support services. You can search this database by type of service using an interactive map.

Please use the FASTlinks Web-based Maps to access this information.

Indigenous Resources

Tyendinaga Home & Community Care offers a network of services provided by qualified staff to assist individuals to remain in their own home for as long as possible.  Click on the links below to learn more. 

Your Stroke Journey Check In - A Self-Assessment Tool

Your Stroke Journey Check In is a self-assessment and self-management questionnaire that helps stroke survivors and caregivers to identify their care and support needs as well as providing a method to assess their recovery journey. The completed questionnaire can also be shared with care providers for assistance in meeting identified care needs. The questionnaire was developed in collaboration with patient advisors. 
Your Stroke Journey Check In

Community Resource Guides

Community and Long Term Care Resource Listing

This resource listing provides supports and services which may be of interest to persons who have experienced a stroke, their caregivers, and their health care providers. The listing includes embedded links where available. There are two separate documents: One for healthcare providers and one for clients and their families. 

Community Stroke Resource Booklets for Kingston & Frontenac County and Lennox & Addington County

Community Stroke Resource Directories in Southeastern Ontario

These directories are relevant to stroke survivors and care partners

Meal Delivery Service Options for Southeastern Ontario 

This resource provides a listing of community based meal services including special diets such as textured meals.  This listing provides information current to December 2016.  Users are also encouraged to refer to the SE Healthline Meal Delivery Services and SE Healthline Frozen Meals.

Caregivers Are an Important Part of Stroke Recovery

It is important for caregivers to have access to information about stroke and also about their new role as a caregiver.  The Stroke Support Groups in Southeastern Ontario include caregivers.  The following are links to excellent sources of information when caring for a person recovering from  stroke.
Supports for Caregiver of Persons Living with the Effects of Stroke, May 2022

Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
https://www.heartandstroke.ca/stroke/recovery-and-support

Ontario Caregiver Organization
https://ontariocaregiver.ca

A Guide to Choosing a Community Exercise Program

The Canadian Stroke Community-based Exercise Recommendations Update 2020: A Resource for Community-based Exercise Providers(link is external), is an evidence-based resource designed to help safely incorporate exercise programs in the community for individuals who have experienced a stroke. The resources include the recommendations in full, an “At-a-Glance” document that allows for a quick review, and a “Choosing a Community Exercise Program after Stroke” document to assist with the selection of an appropriate exercise program. 

The Canadian Stroke Community-based Exercise Guidelines are available under Guidelines & Recommendations

A Guide to Choosing an Emotional Well-Being and Counselling Resource

Stroke has effects that you cannot see.  Changes in the way you feel can have a big impact on your life.  The emotions you have throughout your recovery journey can be intense and change quickly.  Intense feelings are a NORMAL reaction to a big health event, but can also be a result of a brain injury from a stroke.  People who have had a stroke are at higher risk for developing depression.  (Your Stroke Journey, Heart and Stroke Foundation, 2023).  IT IS OK TO NEED HELP.  Sharing your feelings, as hard as it may be, is a step toward meeting your recovery goals.

This resource was developed in response to the Community Consultation completed in 2023:  What We Heard:  Enhancing Individualized Community Stroke Services.  One of the four key themes that emerged was Well-being and Mental Health and one of the top five recommendations was support for mental health.

The following resource contains general emotional well-being and counselling resources to help you find the support that fits your needs.  For any questions or comments, contact Sandra Liu, Regional Community & LTC Coordinator at sandra.liu@kingstonhsc.ca or by phone at 1-613-549-6666 X 6867.

Return to Work Toolkit

This Return to Work Toolkit provides stroke survivors, family members and healthcare providers with assistance to navigate the process of returning to work including information on local and provincial resources and an online Job Readiness Self-Assessment Guide. 

With appreciation to the Stroke Network of Southwestern Ontario for their willingness to share the resources within their Return to Work Toolkit.

Driving After Stroke Resource for Stroke Survivors & Families

The loss of a driver’s licence following a stroke can have significant impacts on the stroke survivor and on the family.  Impacts can include emotional, financial and social and returning to driving after a stroke can be a complicated and costly endeavor for stroke survivors and their families.  Leveraging the work done by the Southwestern Ontario Stroke Network, the Stroke Network of Southeastern Ontario has adapted Driving After a Stroke in Ontario to reflect the services and supports available here in the southeast. The Driving After a Stroke in Ontario resource is intended to help stroke survivors (and families) understand the process required to return to driving and to connect with relevant supports & services.  The resource also recognizes that not all stroke survivors will be able to resume driving and a section applicable to those individuals is included.  The resource also includes two aphasia-friendly algorithms for returning to driving when the stroke survivor’s licence has been suspended and when the licence has not been suspended.  As well, there is information on Driving After a TIA in Ontario.  For more information or to access these resources in additional languages, contact Sandra Liu, Regional Community & LTC Coordinator at sandra.liu@kingstonhsc.ca or by phone at 1-613-549-6666 X 6867.