‘Innovating excellence in stroke care together’ was the theme of this year’s Smart Strokes conference held at the Twin Towns Conference and Function Centre, Gold Coast.
Smart Strokes conferences attract nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, dietitians, social workers, clinical psychologists, doctors and researchers.
Chaired by Professor Erin Godecke (Perron Institute, Edith Cowan University and Sir Charles Gairdner Osborne Park Health Care Group) and Co-chaired by Jessica Pyman (Sunshine Coast Health), the aim is to deliver a state-of-the-art meeting that attracts clinicians who can change clinical practice and challenge the status quo of everyday service delivery.
From across Australia, over 180 people gathered to hear excellent talks and attend workshops in which community, storytelling and lived experience were the cultural threads of the conference.
A stroke survivor conference welcome by Saran Chamberlain (Flinders University Research Assistant) set the tone as she described the “evolution of Smart Strokes to include people with lived experience”.
The international keynote titled: ‘What’s the story? The personal and professional power of storytelling’ was delivered by Sarah Belson, PhD candidate at Brunel University, London, World Stoke Organization and Stroke Association UK. She spoke of her journey including narrative inquiry to explore lived experience and social factors influencing health and wellbeing.
Dr Anna Howell from Alice Springs Hospital delivered a valued and heartening national speaker presentation titled: ‘Remote Stroke: Establishing Stroke Services in Central Australia.’ She highlighted challenges and progress in remote areas, including improving patient education and co-design, the human side of data and numbers and how we “neglect stories of resilience”.
Aphasia WA Vice President and Lived Experience Educator from Perth, Bruce Simcock, was an invited lived experience speaker and delivered a popular and impressive talk titled: ‘The Puncture and The Repair’. With his wife Robyn supporting him in the front row, he shared learnings from his post-stroke journey and living with aphasia (speech and language disorder), including only being able to say ‘no’ in the early stages. “My wheels of support keep me on my bike”, he said. “Support is my most important word for recovery.”
Bill Gasiamis, the host of the Recovery After Stroke podcast from Victoria, gave an engaging talk about ‘The Unexpected Way that a Stroke Became the Best Thing that Happened’.
In the workshop about meaningful lived experience collaboration, Adrian O’Malley and Associate Professor Elizabeth Lynch (Flinders University) delivered an entertaining session on ‘Stroke in research and quality improvement initiatives’. Brenda Booth, Adrian O’Malley, Karly Zacharia, Brooke Parsons, Clive Kempson and Letisha Living shared moving and insightful personal stories in their panel discussion. Letisha shared insights from her book ‘Finding Yourself After Stroke’, a compilation of young stroke survivor stories of courage and resilience.
From the Hunter New England Local Health District in Narrabri NSW, Angela Knox, Karen Baker, Louise Morris, Tammy Baker and the team presented: ‘“If you listen you will find the answers. They may not be what you want to hear but you will get them”- an Aboriginal clinician perspective of authentic Aboriginal Community-led co-created research: the “Let’s Have a Yarn About Our Bladder” project’. They showed how humour and sharing your experience can reduce social stigma about incontinence.
Fiona Herco, Director at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Melbourne, delivered an informative talk titled: ‘Taking action at the point of care: addressing healthcare professional wellbeing’, and practical workshop: ‘Prioritising Workforce Wellbeing: A Systems Approach to Driving Joy and Reducing Burnout’. She shared feedback from her research, including a participant comment about feeling “grateful to be given permission to work on wellbeing at work”, and how this approach created shifts and positive changes within people and, subsequently, their teams.
The program was filled with many concurrent sessions and wide-ranging talks, you can view it here. The Smart Strokes Scientific Committee was Co-Chaired by A/Professor Lynch and Dominique Cadilhac (Monash University).
The 2025 conference is scheduled to be held in Newcastle, Co-chaired by Lauren Arthurson (Echuca Regional Health) and Kelly Anderson (Northern NSW Health).
Photo caption: Robyn and Bruce Simcock with Erin Godecke at the Smart Strokes conference.