When kinesiologist Dustin Kimber hosts an ice-breaking exercise with his clients, it’s not to learn about their favorite movie or their most recent vacation. Kimber’s goal during these sessions is to get to know new clients from the inside out, starting with their heart. More specifically, Kimber wants to know about his clients’ cardiac history. whether a heart attack, surgery or diagnosis brought them to the Portage la Prairie Area Cardiac Rehabilitation Program. “Having the support of a group of people who have all experienced a similar event can be really comforting,” says Kimber. “We knew there was a need for programming that offered support and recovery services for people living outside of Winnipeg. Our goal was to empower clients so that they could regain – and then maintain – operations in their own communities.” Nolan Turnbull Founded in 2019, the education and exercise program supported by Kimber, along with a team of health professionals, allows people of all ages who have suffered a heart attack to receive rehabilitation services closer to home. The program gives participants access to a kinesiologist (Kimber), as well as a cardiac nurse, social worker and dietitian, as well as all fitness facilities at Portage la Prairie’s Stride Place during the six-week program — all for a cost of 56 $. Kimber credits the program’s accessibility — both in terms of location and cost — as well as the need for these services in rural Manitoba for its popularity, citing a waiting list that grew quickly after the program first launched in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the program to pivot, moving sessions from in-person to online, but it hasn’t lost its momentum. Program participants received educational and training materials by email or mail each week, covering a new topic in each package. “Heart attacks and cardiovascular disease didn’t stop with the pandemic,” says Kimber. “Going online has allowed us to eliminate the fee as well as the requirement to travel, allowing participants to complete sessions in the comfort of their own space.” The success of the Portage program soon led to the creation of programs in other rural communities. Nolan Turnbull is a kinesiologist in the Morden-Winkler region. He knew Kimber from a lab group at the University of Manitoba and was inspired to help coordinate a cardiac rehabilitation program for his community. “People have heart attacks and heart operations regularly and they need this support to help them make these lifestyle changes to improve their quality of life and add years to their lives beyond that event. ” says Turnbull. The Morden-Winkler program is slightly different from the Portage example, with clients having access to a chronic disease management clinician, a respiratory therapist and a pharmacist, but the two programs have the same goal: to improve cardiac rehab for Manitobans. The success of the programs is measured not only by the number of referrals and overall demand but also by the client achievements that Kimber, Turnbull and their colleagues see every day. “It’s a really rewarding experience,” says Kimber. “We see clients make permanent lifestyle changes. Sometimes they come back to see us and they’ve found things like a pickleball team that no one really knew about, right in their community.” Turnbull says seeing the physical changes is what proves to him the program is meeting its goal. “Their ability to walk, their confidence around physical activity or their confidence in their body and their heart health, it’s really gratifying,” adds Turnbull. Kimber and Turnbull are thinking big when it comes to the future of rehabilitation programs in Manitoba, recognizing the individual needs that exist for different groups. “It’s all individual preference, but sometimes there are cultural barriers, sometimes women may not feel comfortable exercising with men, sometimes it’s about accessibility,” says Turnbull, who hopes to create a safe and welcoming environment for the women afterwards. Whatever the client group, both Kimber and Turnbull are motivated to create rehabilitation programs that help people who need heart care or the management of other chronic conditions to overcome the fear of exercise and physical activity. “Things like COPD, diabetes, cancer, there are opportunities for home-based or Internet-based rehabilitation programs,” says Kimber. No matter how big their goals, Kimber and Turnbull’s mission remains the same: to find innovative ways to bring rehabilitation care closer to home. From November 6 to 12, Manitoba’s health care organizations are celebrating the diverse and highly specialized skills of our province’s allied health professionals. Representing nearly 200 disciplines working in every sector and area of our health system, allied health professionals are vital members of our healthcare teams.
