The Rouge Valley Health System is a community hospital. We serve young adults with a mental health diagnosis.

We offer walking, strength training, and yoga in our fitness program. This group is available to the youth in our mental health programs. A weekly outdoor walking program runs in the warmer months and in the colder months we shift our program inside to the indoor track at RVHS. During the indoor group clients are given the option of walking or doing walking and some strength training. Then everyone comes together for some yoga and a meditation session.

We run our fitness group parallel to a cooking / nutrition group so clients can learn about exercise, how to cook, and healthy eating choices.

We partner with the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program at Rouge Valley Health System. They have generously supported us by allowing us to use their indoor track.

We faced a few challenges in setting up this program. These included:

• Developing a system to manage the concerns around liability.
• Accessing funds to provide staff with training and equipment.
• Developing a program that would meet the needs of all of the individuals we work with.

Our successes illustrate how we overcame these challenges.

• We worked with the hospital’s risk management department to develop a protocol to manage liability.
• Training and equipment was provided by the program.
• We have designed a program that meets the needs of all of the participants.

For more information, contact:
Stephanie François, Social Worker
Rouge Valley Health System - Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program
Phone: 416-281-7301, ext. 4153
E-mail: sfrancois [at] rougevalley [dot] ca

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