Our History

Prevent Stroke started in 2001 as a stroke prevention project of Health Nexus (formerly OPC).

In the first stages of the project we performed needs assessments to determine the capacity of communities to engage in health promotion to support stroke prevention. We hosted a think tank to assess evaluation methods that could be used to evaluate community capacity in relation to prevention and health promotion regarding strokes and other chronic disease.

Contributed to Continuation Plan for longer-term sustainability of the Ontario Heart Health Network- 2001.

Our role was to examine requirements and options to integrate stroke prevention in the work of heart health coalitions. The Continuation Working Group prepared a Continuation Plan for 2003 and Beyond for the Ontario Heart Health Network.

From Stroke Prevention to Health Gain - 2002

In 2002, Health Nexus helped to develop a health promotion framework for prevention of chronic/non-communicable diseases in Ontario. This work was undertaken by the Centre for Behavioural Research and Program Evaluation of the National Cancer Institute of Canada, housed at the University of Waterloo.

The report ‘From Stroke Prevention to Health Gain' (PDF 455 Kb) has been divided into five modules:

1. Burden of Stroke and Scope for Prevention
2. Effectiveness of Interventions
3. Current Approaches
4. Chronic Disease Prevention Models
5. Rationale for Integrated Approach

The role of Community Coalitions and Stroke Prevention

In 2002, we also produced a report on Community Coalitions' Capacity to Incorporate Stroke/Chronic Disease Prevention. Part 1 of this report identified the many and varied existing and new coalitions to engage communities in health promotion. Part 2 compared coalitions formed in the Ontario Heart Health Program (OHHP) and explored the potential of these coalitions to build a coordinated network for chronic disease prevention.

2003-2007

Since 2003, our work has focused on improving the integration of stroke prevention in the stroke care and treatment system, within the Ontario Stroke System. We have worked closely with selected staff at the Regional and District Stroke Centres across Ontario. In 2005, we changed our name from Stroke Prevention Initiative to Prevent Stroke and launched our new website at http://www.preventstroke.ca/.

Highlights of our work include:

• A unique searchable database of community programs across Ontario to prevent stroke. Our database - now with over 4000 records-focuses on both physical and social risk factors for stroke.
• Prescribing Prevention: Health Promotion and Stroke Prevention (2^nd edition 2004 Our print and e-learning tool on stroke prevention and health promotion, which includes evidence-based information on stroke prevention together with practical tools and checklists. Download a PDF version.
• Community Engagement with Connecting the Dots. We are working with Regional and District Stroke Centres across the province to help them connect in new ways with the broader community-across the continuum of stroke care.
• Our new website- launched in 2007! We hope that this will be a wonderful e-information hub for stroke centres to share stories of community engagement, announce special events and talk about prevention!