With a rapidly aging population worldwide, the increase in expected stroke burden highlights an urgent need to better understand patient experiences in part as an effort to improve services and care. We undertook an exploratory arts-based project aimed at harnessing the power of storytelling to gather invaluable frontline insights, identify research priorities and questions and to determine interest in potential collaborations to undertake further research to systematically investigate stroke care in northern British Columbia. A central aspect of this work was to provide an avenue for the ‘patient voice’ through the sharing of personal stories of stroke experiences through various art modalities including poetry, painting, drum-making, and pottery. Sharing of experiences in navigating care, challenges, barriers, and opportunities were all encouraged. We will present an overview of this work including the arts events and community celebrations and key themes from the discussions that ensued will also be shared. We hope to highlight how we as researchers, healthcare providers, and decision-makers can listen and learn from patients to improve stroke research, prevention, and management as well as further our understanding of the dynamic and diverse experiences of this particular population.

Communities of Hope: Living with stroke and brain injury in northern British Columbia