Evaluation of the Impact of the AVanCer Program Provided by the ARRPAC Day Center

In France, more than 150,000 strokes occur each year. Stroke is a major risk factor for dependency, representing the leading cause of acquired non-traumatic disability in adults. Head injuries, which are also very frequent, can leave similar neuropsychiatric sequelae.

These events are brutal and their physical, psychological, emotional, social and financial consequences disrupt the lives of patients and their families. Thanks to improved access to thrombolysis and thrombectomy for the management of acute stroke, the prognosis has been profoundly improved. Nevertheless, the increase in post-stroke survival and the evolution of the type of after-effects require the development of support systems dedicated to these post-stroke patients. The same issues are raised for people who have suffered a head injury with similar consequences that require specialised care.

Currently, health care is well structured for the acute phase and there is an improvement in the provision of care in specialised rehabilitation services, but the dedicated medico-social provision for people returning home remains insufficient despite the significant needs. The ARRPAC association (Accompaniment, Rehabilitation, Respite after Stroke and Cerebral Palsy) is setting up a new comprehensive medico-social support programme in Lyon (AVanCer programme, opening in June 2022) to improve the autonomy and adaptation capacities of patients and to relieve the social and psycho-affective burden of carers. This experimental day centre, which complements functional rehabilitation and recurrence prevention care, offers adults with brain injury sequelae and their carers therapeutic education programmes, adapted physical activity, social and cognitive remediation and therapeutic workshops, as well as a place for patients and their carers to exchange information and listen. To achieve its ambition, ARRPAC and the AVanCer programme must be integrated into the existing support offer, create partnerships with care structures and evaluate its added value to ensure its sustainability. In case of efficiency and demonstrated benefits for patients, carers and the health system, such a structure could be deployed in other territories.

This study evaluates the implementation of the AVanCer programme in terms of its effect on the target audience, participants' experience and implementation according to the REAIM evaluative framework (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance).