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YMCA LiveWell

Providing accessible, personalized, evidence-based community wellness programming across Nova Scotia

YMCA LiveWell is a group exercise program that focuses on improving the physical and mental health of Nova Scotians with chronic conditions.*

YMCA LiveWell Programs

  • Create smooth transitions for patients between hospital care and community health.
  • Deliver care in the most appropriate setting for promoting and sustaining health and wellness.
  • Improve health outcomes of individuals with a focus on secondary prevention and chronic disease self-management.
  • Reduce health disparities through the elimination of both real and perceived barriers to participation.

 

YMCA LiveWell supports both physician and self-referrals and offers a comprehensive intake process, supervision, and progression within a socially supportive environment. It embraces a person-centric approach that focuses on secondary prevention and chronic disease self-management. LiveWell encourages participants to take control of their own health.

*Chronic conditions are defined broadly as conditions that last 1 year or more and require ongoing medical attention, or limit activities of daily living or both.

YMCA LiveWell Programs

Meet Joy

Joy Chiekwe, MSc (she/her)
CSEP-Clinical Exercise Physiologist
LiveWell Provincial Lead
Phone: 902-222-5889
Email: [email protected]

 

Meet Denise

Denise Covey
Wellness Lead
Phone: 902-212-1431
Email: [email protected]

Exercise Professional Referral Form

This form serves as a referral for healthcare providers to enroll their patients in the program.

Heart Wise and the YMCA
Our health management programs follow Heart Wise exercise guidelines developed by the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. A program or class at our YMCA that is designated and approved as heart wise will have the heart wise exercise logo. Heart wise exercise classes meet the following criteria:  

  • Encourages regular, daily aerobic exercise
  • Encourages and incorporates warm up, cool down and self-monitoring with all exercise sessions
  • Allows participants to exercise at a safe level and offers options to modify intensity
  • Includes participants with chronic health conditions – physician approval may be required
  • Offers health screening for all participants
  • Has a documented emergency plan that is known to all exercise leaders, including the requirement of current CPR certification, phone access to local paramedic services and presence of a defibrillator. 

Approved heart wise program classes cover different types of exercise with different levels of intensity.  

Please visit Ottawa Heart Institute for further information 

Membership Assistance

We are committed to eliminating financial barriers and providing everyone the opportunity to participate in YMCA programs and services. A YMCA financially assisted membership offers access to the same facilities, programs, and services at a reduced rate.

YMCA Membership Assistance Program