How Our Program Works

How our
program works

Our services

The regional cardiovascular rehab service gets you on track to better heart health. This six-month program is free of charge, helping to improve your quality of life through supervised exercise, education and guided lifestyle change.

Our weekly exercise classes are 90 minutes long. At each class, we monitor your progress, review your risk factors, and provide you with encouragement and motivation.

Classes can be scheduled in the morning, afternoon, or evening to fit your schedule.

EDUCATION

Our weekly education sessions are designed to help answer your questions around cardiovascular disease and how to improve your cardiovascular health.

Weekly educational topics

  • Alcohol and smoking
  • Blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides
  • Cold weather and exercise
  • Exercise is medicine
  • Exercise prescription and prescription
  • Hot weather and exercise
  • Keeping exercise safe
  • Keeping on track
  • Modifiable risk factors
  • Reading food labels
  • Resistance training, stress and sleep

Additional heart healthy education

Our weekly education sessions are also supplemented by several additional workshops and classes offered by our multidisciplinary team of exercise therapists, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, dietitian and certified tobacco educator. These sessions are available in-person and online.

  • Heart healthy eating
  • Exercise and vascular disease
  • Understanding heart medications
  • Living well with heart failure
  • Craving change
  • Mindful eating
  • Herbs, non-prescription medications and your heart
  • Women and heart disease
  • Smoking and heart disease
EXERCISE

Regular physical activity is important for your cardiovascular health and can reduce the risk of developing further health concerns. An exercise therapist will work with you to develop a safe individualized exercise plan based on your personal goals and preferences.

Our weekly, supervised exercise sessions include:

  • Warm-up exercises
  • Strength training using hand weights or resistance bands

Each week, we will provide one-to-one counselling and support on risk factor management and exercise. We monitor your progress, review your risk factors, and provide you with encouragement and motivation.

We also will help to design individualized home exercise plans for your regular routine.

LIFESTYLE COACHING

Our team works closely with you to put you on the path to better heart health. Together, we can partner to set and achieve your lifestyle goals.

We will educate you on risk factors, teach exercise progression, and provide you with the tools and skills for you to manage your cardiovascular condition on your own (and with your family).

Through our program, you will also learn to make heart-healthy choices with your diet, and we offer support to help you reduce or quit smoking.

Our aim is to set you up for success when you complete our program to be able to take charge of your health and achieve a better quality of life.

Heart failure is when your heart is not pumping blood as strongly as it should. When this happens, our body does not get the right amount of blood, oxygen and nutrients it needs to work properly.

Our specialized heart failure enhancement service  is free of charge, and led by a registered nurse and nurse practitioner who help patients to understand the early signs of heart failure and when to take action so their condition won’t become worse and require them to be hospitalized. We aim to teach patients self-care skills for their condition.

With proper management of heart failure, patients can improve the quality of their life and potentially extend their life expectancy.

The Heart Failure Enhancement service includes:

  • Regular checks by a heart failure nurse to track progress/health changes

  • Weekly supervised aerobic exercise and strength training

  • Support with managing medications

  • Nutritional counseling

  •  Education on other health conditions, such as anemia, diabetes, dyslipidemia

  • Connecting patients with community resources

After completing from our six-month core program, patients are often looking for additional support to help them continue to manage their heart health. We offer services for recent graduates with our team, and help them to move on to programs offered within the community.

NEXT STEPS

Your heart healthy lifestyle does not end with graduation. Through the Next Steps Alumni services we aim to support your ongoing rehab journey. Through continuing education, exercise demonstrations, peer support and exercise tracking we will provide additional tools to help you independently manage your lifestyle goals.

Access to the exclusive Next Steps Portal is available free of charge, for all program graduates. Talk to your exercise therapist or contact nextsteps@shn.ca for more details.

MOVING FORWARD

Moving Forward into the community is a branch of services available to graduates of the Central East Regional Cardiovascular Rehab program.

These community-based services are offered independent of the Central East Regional Cardiovascular Rehab program and the Scarborough Health Network.

For access to the list of Moving Forward community partners, sign into the Next Steps Alumni portal.

Not a member? Contact your exercise therapist or email nextsteps@shn.ca

Six-month core program

The regional cardiovascular rehab service gets you on track to better heart health. This six-month program is free of charge, helping to improve your quality of life through supervised exercise, education and guided lifestyle change.

Our weekly exercise classes are 90 minutes long. At each class, we monitor your progress, review your risk factors, and provide you with encouragement and motivation.

Classes can be scheduled in the morning, afternoon, or evening to fit your schedule.

EDUCATION

Our weekly education sessions are designed to help answer your questions around cardiovascular disease and how to improve your cardiovascular health.

Weekly educational topics

  • Alcohol and smoking
  • Blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides
  • Cold weather and exercise
  • Exercise is medicine
  • Exercise prescription and prescription
  • Hot weather and exercise
  • Keeping exercise safe
  • Keeping on track
  • Modifiable risk factors
  • Reading food labels
  • Resistance training, stress and sleep

Additional heart healthy education

Our weekly education sessions are also supplemented by several additional workshops and classes offered by our multidisciplinary team of exercise therapists, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, dietitian and certified tobacco educator. These sessions are available in-person and online.

  • Heart healthy eating
  • Exercise and vascular disease
  • Understanding heart medications
  • Living well with heart failure
  • Craving change
  • Mindful eating
  • Herbs, non-prescription medications and your heart
  • Women and heart disease
  • Smoking and heart disease
EXERCISE

Regular physical activity is important for your cardiovascular health and can reduce the risk of developing further health concerns. An exercise therapist will work with you to develop a safe individualized exercise plan based on your personal goals and preferences.

Our weekly, supervised exercise sessions include:

  • Warm-up exercises
  • Strength training using hand weights or resistance bands

Each week, we will provide one-to-one counselling and support on risk factor management and exercise. We monitor your progress, review your risk factors, and provide you with encouragement and motivation.

We also will help to design individualized home exercise plans for your regular routine.

LIFESTYLE COACHING

Our team works closely with you to put you on the path to better heart health. Together, we can partner to set and achieve your lifestyle goals.

We will educate you on risk factors, teach exercise progression, and provide you with the tools and skills for you to manage your cardiovascular condition on your own (and with your family).

Through our program, you will also learn to make heart-healthy choices with your diet, and we offer support to help you reduce or quit smoking.

Our aim is to set you up for success when you complete our program to be able to take charge of your health and achieve a better quality of life.

Heart failure enhancement

Heart failure is when your heart is not pumping blood as strongly as it should. When this happens, our body does not get the right amount of blood, oxygen and nutrients it needs to work properly.

Our specialized heart failure enhancement service  is free of charge, and led by a registered nurse and nurse practitioner who help patients to understand the early signs of heart failure and when to take action so their condition won’t become worse and require them to be hospitalized. We aim to teach patients self-care skills for their condition.

With proper management of heart failure, patients can improve the quality of their life and potentially extend their life expectancy.

The Heart Failure Enhancement service includes:

  • Regular checks by a heart failure nurse to track progress/health changes

  • Weekly supervised aerobic exercise and strength training

  • Support with managing medications

  • Nutritional counseling

  •  Education on other health conditions, such as anemia, diabetes, dyslipidemia

  • Connecting patients with community resources

Alumni Services

After completing from our six-month core program, patients are often looking for additional support to help them continue to manage their heart health. We offer services for recent graduates with our team, and help them to move on to programs offered within the community.

NEXT STEPS

Your heart healthy lifestyle does not end with graduation. Through the Next Steps Alumni services we aim to support your ongoing rehab journey. Through continuing education, exercise demonstrations, peer support and exercise tracking we will provide additional tools to help you independently manage your lifestyle goals.

Access to the exclusive Next Steps Portal is available free of charge, for all program graduates. Talk to your exercise therapist or contact nextsteps@shn.ca for more details.

MOVING FORWARD

Moving Forward into the community is a branch of services available to graduates of the Central East Regional Cardiovascular Rehab program.

These community-based services are offered independent of the Central East Regional Cardiovascular Rehab program and the Scarborough Health Network.

For access to the list of Moving Forward community partners, sign into the Next Steps Alumni portal.

Not a member? Contact your exercise therapist or email nextsteps@shn.ca

Our regional model

COMMUNITY BASED

Community programming close to home

REGIONAL WORKFORCE

Specialists on-site in patient communities to deliver care

PARTNERING WITH FAMILY DOCTORS

Ensure equitable access to all patients with vascular disease

CENTRALIZED COORDINATION CENTRE

Manages and triages referrals for patients from across the region

STANDARDIZED PROGRAM

Aligns with Canadian cardiac care guidelines

HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM

Electronic patient chart that supports clinical and administrative management

Our team

EXERCISE THERAPISTS

As key members of the cardiovascular rehabilitation team, exercise therapists have expertise in restoring patients’ heart health through activity and exercise, being mindful of physical or mental limitations brought on by heart disease.

REGISTERED DIETITIAN

Cardiac patients meet with our Registered Dietian to ensure a healthy diet is part of the rehabilitation program.

CARDIAC NURSES

Our team includes a nurse practitioner and registered nurse who have certification in cardiovascular care and are trained to provide education and specialized care to heart patients.

VOLUNTEERS

The regional program has a family of volunteers to assist patients during their cardiovascular rehab journey.

By inviting previous cardiac patients to return as volunteers, we are bringing compassionate care to the exceptional level — making sure patients feel supported, safe, and understood.

Contact us

If you’re interested in joining our cardiovascular rehab program, speak to your health care provider, or contact us directly. 

For questions or to learn more, please contact the regional program at 1-855-448-5471 or 416-281-7022.

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