The Heart Wise Exercise Program (HWEP)
This program, developed in Ottawa, seeks to make community exercise facilities safer and more accessible to people recovering from a cardiovascular event or those at risk of one. Currently, exercise is prescribed for people recovering from a heart attack or stroke. However, most cardiovascular rehabilitation takes place in a hospital setting, creating barriers to attendance for some patients. Furthermore, programs do not generally last longer than 6 months. Once a patient “graduates” from the program, they may find challenges in locating another facility where they feel comfortable and safe to exercise in. HWEP aims to reduce barriers to patients accessing exercise in the community by certifying community exercise facilities as places where people at risk of or having experienced cardiovascular events can go for exercise. They provide training to facility staff and help develop protocols to certify the facilities are part of the HWEP program.
HWEP-ESLM service learning project 2012
The HWEP is new to the GTA. Therefore, there was no standardized training and few facilities were signed on. Paul Sawyer wanted to create standardized training and expand the program in the GTA and to expand into multiple community settings. We decided to partner with him and the ESLM students to do this. The ESLM attended a training offered by multiple presenters to understand the program and see how training was currently being delivered (non-standardized, multiple presenters). They wrote curriculum learning outcomes, created background reading for facilitators, created standardized instructions for delivery of the content and then ran a workshop for interested community partners. In addition, students took on special projects related to bringing HWEP to the GTA such as creating marketing material, working with Humber athletics to make Humber a HWEP facility, and contacting community facilities about HWEP. At the end of March, the student delivered the HWEP training workshops they had created to participants.
HWEP workshop delivered by ESLM students Winter 2012
HWEP-ESLM service learning projects 2013
Continued the work on HWEP started the previous year, ESLM students worked on this initiative in 3 of their classes:
- Group exercise: developed and delivered HWEP group exercise classes for the Humber Community
- Marketing and Entrepreneurship: developed a marketing strategy to promotion the Humber HWEP classes
- Health Promotion:
- Edited the HWEP training to be able to be delivered online (collaboration with UGH Kinesiology students)
- Created marketing material to educate GTA health professionals and potential clients of the program
- Evaluated HWEP facilities program implementation and advised our program partners on areas that need great support
- Conducted an assessment of the area around Humber to be able to recruit high risk individuals to the program in the future
HWEP classes delivered at Humber by ESLM students for the Community Winter 2013
Continuation of the HWEP-ESLM service learning projects 2013-2014
Because our HWEP partners have been so satisfied with the partnership, we are discussing future options including:
- Expanding the online HWEP training
- Developing partnerships in around Humber to bring in high-risk participants