- Do I need a doctor referral?
- Do I have to attend all 10 sessions?
- Can I do Women@Heart and Cardiac Rehabilitation at the same time?
- How Can Healthcare Providers Get Involved?
Women@Heart does not require a doctor referral. Interested patients can self-refer to the program.
To benefit from the program, attending all 10 sessions is recommended. The gains of each session are built on the exchanges that happen among the participants and the meaningful opportunities to help others facing similar challenges. So, we do require the attendance of at least seven of the 10 sessions. View session topics.
Women@Heart is an option of Cardiac Rehabilitation and compliments the traditional program that mainly focuses on physical recovery. Both programs can be done simultaneously or one after the other.
Health care providers can encourage their female patients with heart disease to join Women@Heart. People living with chronic conditions need more than medical treatment from their health care providers; they need support in mastering and sustaining self-care behaviours that are necessary to enable them to live as healthy as possible. The primary rehabilitative need of women may be that of support, particularly from women with similar experiences. We know that people are more likely to hear and personalize messages, and consequently to change their attitudes and behaviours, if they believe the peer is similar to them and faced the same concerns and pressures.