Chronic disease ranked among the top five health issues for Brown County in Aurora BayCare Medical Center’s most recent Community Health Needs Assessment. As a comprehensive stroke center, the team at Aurora BayCare Medical Center knows that maintaining their connection to stroke survivors allows for better resilience and emotional health, especially during uncertain times. Taking care of the whole person along the entire care continuum is important every day, even when treatments end.
The problem was learning how to maintain those connections for Stroke Survivors while mitigating COVID-19 transmission risk. The solution was virtual support group meetings.
In 2020, the Aurora BayCare Medical Center team was able to pivot to a virtual format and not only continue hosting monthly meetings, but also reach new participants, even if they were not Advocate Aurora Health patients.
One of the main goals of their Stroke Support Group is to provide stroke-related education for meeting participants. While hosting virtual meetings, they were able to bring in speakers from organizations outside of Advocate Aurora Health, even those outside their normal geographic area, to provide valuable education.
The support group participants expressed gratitude for the social connection during a time when there was so little opportunity for connection and greater amounts of anxiety.
Aurora BayCare Medical Center was happy to play a small role in taking care of the whole person.