08/08/2026
The World Stroke Summit, hosted by World Stroke Organisation in collaboration with the Department of Health SA, shone a light on every stage of the stroke journey, but one of the most important conversations SSF presented, was about what happens after hospital discharge. 🌍
Stroke Survivors Foundation South Africa (SSF) team (Christo Niemand, Hayley Porter and Lydia Ackerman) were proud to introduce the PDSS Recovery Pathway, our vision for transforming stroke care beyond survival and into long-term recovery.
The key question we asked was:
What happens to stroke survivors after they leave hospital❓
Hospitals and stroke units have done an incredible job of saving lives. But recovery does not end at discharge. The real challenge often begins when survivors return home, facing months and years of rehabilitation, adjustment, and rebuilding their lives.
Think of the moon.
🌕 There is a side we can see clearly.
🌑 And there is a side we cannot see, the dark side.
Stroke care is very similar.
We see the hospital treatment, emergency care, and life-saving interventions. But recovery happens on the side that is often unseen:
• Life after discharge
• Ongoing rehabilitation
• Emotional recovery
• Community reintegration
• Support for families and caregivers
When recovery becomes invisible, opportunities for support, intervention, and better outcomes are lost.
Our core message was simple:
➡️ No stroke survivor should leave hospital without access to a recovery pathway.
SSF CEO George Scola, joined by fellow survivors, LIRA and Sello Rasethaba, shared the patient perspective Ministerial Meeting in his presentation,"Patient Voices, Policy Impact: Advancing Stroke Care Through Lived Experience," and later George contributed to the Stroke Rehabilitation Workshop session on Post-Hospital Discharge.
The challenge facing healthcare today is not the side of stroke we can see.
It is the side we cannot.
Together, we took an important step toward making recovery visible.
