Stroke rehabilitation is a global priority – with millions of people around the world and more than 445,000 Australians living with stroke, making it a leading cause of adult disability – and Flinders University’s Associate Professor Elizabeth Lynch is working with the world’s finest researchers to design effective solutions.

Associate Professor Lynch co-led a team convened within the International Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Alliance to identify criteria and measurable indicators of Centres of Clinical Excellence in Stroke Rehabilitation, and has worked with the World Stroke Organization to review the draft criteria for international stroke rehabilitation centre certification which will be launched in October 2025.

Another important step forward is being made by Flinders’ Caring Futures Institute researchers to develop a website that addresses the serious questions of what stroke survivors and their carers want to help build their confidence through rehabilitation, and to help them navigate their lives with the disabilities introduced by stroke.

Associate Professor Lynch, a physiotherapist who has worked and researched stroke recovery and rehabilitation in inpatient rehabilitation settings for more than 20 years, says two collaborations at the heart of this website project have provided crucial benefits.

Firstly, working with Stroke Foundation since the project’s inception has given Flinders researchers the necessary access to resources – as Stroke Foundation will host the website once it is completed – and client-based direction to make sure the website is best suited to serve stroke survivors and their families.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, has been the benefits of researchers working in collaboration with people who have had strokes. Three people with lived experience are part of the project team, one of whom co-facilitated meetings with the Lived Experience Advisory Group to co-design the website and its material, which has provided Associate Professor Lynch with insights that she hadn’t expected.

“I’ve learned so much from what these people have said. My colleague with lived experience of stroke was also able to ask questions to other stroke survivors and carers in a way that  prompted very forthright and expansive answers – much of it being information I don’t think people would have shared with me on my own,” says Professor Lynch.

“I came to understand that even after rehabilitation programs, stroke survivors go through real trauma before they start to cope with the re-adjustment of trying to live a very different life with disability.

“Mostly, stroke survivors have to do this on their own because it occurs once their rehabilitation program has finished – but their readjustment program goes on, and on.

“This is something that not a lot of health professionals actually realise. Through having stroke survivors at the centre of our research team, we have been able to insert these important realisations into the information that will be contained in the website.”

It also meant that that the final design and function of the website is not what Associate Professor Lynch originally envisaged. “I expected something that looked really beautiful, with lots of high-level video production, and the people who co-designed the project said that is definitely not what they wanted. They wanted simplicity and authenticity in the way their stories are told; just with very simple camera footage, because they want their stories to be the focus – and I love the stories. I can see now why they wanted the website to be this way.”

A key to forming this richer understanding has been comprehending – and also clearly defining – what the term “self-efficacy” means.  “It has been a term commonly used as medical jargon, almost to the point where some medical people virtually dismiss it, but the stroke survivors who we connected with all say it’s a very important term to them – and that self-efficacy can’t be achieved if you don’t know what it is.

“So, the clarity of defining self-efficacy is vitally important. It’s the feeling that a person can confidently do the things that matter to them. And equally important, that they feel confident enough to drop and disregard what isn’t important to them.”

“This is also coupled with a keen understanding that life after stroke is different – and that they are still learning to what they can do after significant loss.”

During 2026, the project will have delivered an informative website that is compatible with Stroke Foundation Australia’s existing online system – which Associate Professor Lynch says will be a valuable asset.

“This resource meets a real need in the community,” she says, “and best of all it will be easily found and accessed in a place where anyone affected by stroke is likely to find this information.”

This information will be available at www.strokefoundation.org.au in 2026.