Education sessions will focus on preventing stroke and heart disease

Yarmouth, Shelburne and Digby County residents are invited to attend

information sessions to help them make life changes to prevent stroke

and heart disease. Tri-county residents are invited to attend The Heart and Stroke "Live and Learn" patient education series presented by South West Health's stroke program begins Tuesday, March 18,

(2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.) and will run each Tuesday afternoon for four weeks. The free sessions will be repeated in the evenings 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. beginning Wednesday, May 7, for four weeks.

"Information is power, and we want to support people to make the right

choices so they can make informed decisions and live their healthiest

lives possible," says Melanie Mooney, primary health care manager, South West Health.

"People with risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol or

diabetes will find these sessions helpful," says Mooney.

"They will learn how they can take steps to makechanges in their lives to improve their health and to prevent stroke and

heart disease," she adds.

Live and Learn educational presentations cover a variety of subjects

including: understanding stroke and heart attack - its causes, effects

and risk factors, medications, nutrition, physical activity, sexual

activity, driving, addictions, stress management, Emergency Health

Services, and community resources. Each session has an education

portion and a question period, and is interactive, informative and fun.

Each participant will be asked to set their own health goals to work

towards throughout the sessions.

Most presentations will take place at Yarmouth Regional Hospital but

will be broadcast by Telehealth to Digby General Hospital and Roseway

Hospital. This way, participants can attend the course at their local

hospital. They will view the presenters on a television monitor, they

will be seen by others attending the session at the other hospitals and

they can ask questions as if they were attending the sessions in person.



To register for the "Live and Learn" session call 902-742-3542

ext. 460.