Table 1. Guide to the topics covered in patient interviews.

Baseline
Background	• The pre-stroke functional status of the patient: how they were managing at home before the stroke, any formal or informal care required, and their interactions with their family. • Reported preferences on surviving with significant disability: if they had made any advanced statements or had any thoughts of what they may want in terms of treatments if they had an illness that may result in them surviving with potentially significant disability.
Experiences	• Patients’ feelings about their situation post stroke: how they felt about their diagnosis and how they felt they were coping with the situation • Patients’ experiences in hospital in the early phase after the stroke: their interactions with staff
Needs	• Patients’ perception of information in general: whether this may help them understand their diagnosis, potential prognosis and help them make treatment decisions. • Their understanding about the goals of treatments that were being offered after acute stroke and what they would need to make decisions about these treatments
Six month follow up
Experiences	• Patients’ thoughts and feelings having survived a physically disabling stroke, how they were managing on a day to day basis, their thoughts on their recovery process since hospital discharge
Needs	• back to their time in hospital, their thoughts on what (for example, information or support) could have been given to them in hospital which may have been useful to them.