Increasing access to therapy

Standards, guidelines and evidence

Many standards and guidelines for therapy services exist to guide the direction for the development of services to improve access to therapy: 

• Research, guidelines and evidence
  This section of the NHS Improvement Community Stroke Resource includes information for therapy services. 
   
• Examples of Models of Stroke Rehabilitation
  This chart includes information on service specifications, presentations, outcome measure used, staffing levels, outcome reports ,details of operational service delivery and support systems. 
   
• Supervision, accountability and delegation of activities to support workers
  A guide for registered practitioners and support workers. It is an intercollegiate information paper developed by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, British Dietetic Assocation and the Royal College of Nursing. 

Information about international guidelines can be found in the following documents: 

• Teasell RW, Foley NC, Salter K, Bhogal SK, Jutai J, Speechley MR. Evidence-Based Review of Stroke Rehabilitation (11th edition). Canadian Stroke Network; 2008.
   
   
• Defining groups, three hour rule and PTA treatment. US Guidelines. Pauline M. Franko and Danna D. Mullins.
   

Although there is still much debate around the evidence base for 45 minutes of therapy, there are many research and evidence based papers to support work around increasing intensity and frequency of therapy interventions. 

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