By Kyla Pearson
For residents of Ottawa who are concerned with the health of their hearts, finding an appropriate exercise class just got easier.
Individuals can rely on the new Heart Wise Exercise logo, scattered throughout the city’s current recreation guide, to identify regular fitness programs that best accommodate cardiac conditions.
“People are definitely looking for programs and Heart Wise is a great opportunity to give people a comfortable option for physical activity they can access in the community,” says Kathryn Watcham, program co-ordinator at the Jack Purcell Recreation Association and Jack Purcell Community Centre.
“It is extremely important that people with heart concerns stay active.”
The University of Ottawa Heart Institute first began work on the Heart Wise program about four years ago, says Jennifer Harris, a physiotherapist at the institute’s Prevention and Rehabilitation Centre and the Heart Wise project co-ordinator.
The Heart Institute brought together the city and a variety of local partners to design a set of criteria that exercise programs must meet in order to earn the Heart Wise seal of approval.
The original impetus for the program came from the desire to help people who had finished cardiac rehabilitation find places in the community where they could exercise safely and comfortably, Harris says.
“We weren’t looking to create new programs, but rather to identify suitable ones,” she says.
Among other criteria, to be considered “heart wise,” exercise programs must encourage daily physical activity, allow low-intensity workouts, provide health screening, accept participants with cardiac disease who present physician approval, and have a documented plan for dealing with cardiac emergencies.
There are currently 22 recreational and community facilities around the city offering more than 95 approved programs.
Because Heart Wise has focused on identifying City of Ottawa recreation programs already in existence, it is not costing any extra money, says Mike Lalonde, recreation program co-ordinator for the city.
He says the program helps to fulfill Ottawa’s mandate to offer fitness programs to all residents.
The program also reflects the province’s emphasis on physical activity. According to Gillian MacDonald, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion, the Communities in Action Fund awarded the program a grant for $61,220 during the 2006-2007 fiscal year.
The fund has awarded more than $23 million in grants to local and provincial initiatives aimed at increasing physical activity and is a key element of ACTIVE2010: Ontario’s Sport and Physical Activity Strategy.
And while it is in a pilot stage, Harris says the long-term goals of the Heart Wise program involve geographic expansion.
“Our long-term goals are to maintain the program in Ottawa and expand it throughout the province and further abroad if possible,” she says.
Harris says there are over 1,000 people registered in the different classes, however it is not yet known how many have joined as direct result of the Heart Wise classification.
Watcham, from the Jack Purcell Community Centre, says two people have come specifically in search of Heart Wise programs, but a small number does not reflect lack of interest.
The community centre offers several Heart Wise options and Watcham says in many cases the Heart Institute and other medical professionals have already referred many participants with heart conditions to the classes.
Harris says there will be a formal evaluation of the Heart Wise program in the spring and that the University of Ottawa will perform its own survey and evaluation of the project.
“This is not a complex program, it is just a matter of keeping it going,” says Harris. “It’s no secret that there’s a big push on daily physical activity and we know it’s important, so any way we can help people find appropriate ways to exercise, I think it’s a good thing.”