Introduction: Disability after stroke often requires mental health treatment, but contradictorily, also restricts access to it. People with cognitive, motor, language, and perceptual impairments have been excluded from research on psychosocial supports like psychotherapy, support groups, and meaningful life activities. This exclusion adds to the inequitable distribution of benefits, including fewer treatment options and less knowledgeable providers. Very little is known about who is excluded from stroke psychosocial support research, why they are excluded, and how exclusion occurs. Methods: Exclusionary practices were investigated using a Johanna Briggs Institute-method scoping review. Independent reviewers screened searches of CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, and PsychInfo, resulting in 101 included studies. Content analysis was used to analyze studies following an a priori coding framework, which included: Design, inclusion/exclusion criteria, stroke impairment, psychiatric comorbidity, and psychosocial support type. Results: Samples were commonly limited to mild cognitive impairment, with other subpopulations under-represented. Moderate-to-severe cognitive and language impairments were systematically excluded from psychotherapy studies. In contrast, support group and meaningful life activity studies more often included a range of impairments, but also more often excluded psychiatric comorbidity. Studies with rigorous designs rarely included complex impairment profiles. Reasons for exclusion were seldom provided, and participant characteristics were routinely underreported. Conclusion: By including only people with mild and uncomplicated impairment profiles, the field risks neglecting the complex realities of others who arguably have even greater need for support. This scoping review offers recommendations for stroke research and practice, including: The inclusion of a range of stroke impairments in research samples, adapting procedures using compensatory strategies to facilitate inclusion, and greater cross-pollination between mental health and rehabilitation disciplines. This review serves as a call to action to make psychosocial supports equitable and accessible for all people, regardless of ability.
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