» Canadian Forum
Prescription to Get Active is Here!
BY PERRY TUCCIARONE
health care providers and recreation organizations. This health promotion initiative,
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now a federal not-for-profit corpora- tion, was created in 2011 to encour- age physical activity in sedentary Canadians with the am- bitious aim of improv- ing over- all health and qual- ity of life and reduc- ing the risk of chronic disease and premature death. Family
doctors and other health care providers first iden- tify patients
who could benefit from more physical activity, and they then provide a pre- scription for physical activity. RxTGA utilizes this influence and the motiva- tional power of a written prescription to encourage sedentary patients, who are at risk of developing chronic dis- ease, to become more physically active. Launched in Leduc, Alberta, there
are now 25 Alberta primary care net- works representing over 2,800 fam- ily physicians and their teams (writ- ing more than 4,000 physical activity prescriptions) and over 130 recre- ational facilities available to RxTGA participants in Alberta. Participation
rescription to Get Active (RxTGA) is an exciting in- tegrated partnership be- tween family doctors, other
numbers continue to grow each week. We currently are looking at launch-
ing RxTGA chapters in Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. These chapters will be part of a target- ed expansion to see how the initiative can be implemented in other jurisdic- tions with different models of prima- ry care. In Ontario, we have a team of health
care providers revising the wording of the primary care “terms of participa- tion” to reflect rules and regulations of the province’s medical communi- ty. A soft launch has been initiated by the Peterborough YMCA, which will be followed by the official launch in Markham. Our target population is anyone
who is not meeting recommended levels for physical activity and who does not require medical clearance or supervision for activity. Our goal is to serve as a platform to create, im- prove, integrate and share data to im- prove patients’ experiences and health through physical activity. We will con- tinue to scale the current initiative with our vision to expand and support our program throughout the rest of Canada. For more information, contact Perry
Tucciarone at perry.tucciarone@mer-
chanttreasury.com or Melanie Fuller at
info@prescriptiontogetactive.com, or visit
www.prescriptiontogetactive.com.
Perry Tucciarone is the director, business de- velopment & national accounts for Merchant Treasury Services, a Fitness Industry Council of Canada provincial councillor and on the strate- gic leadership committee of Prescription to Get Active in Ontario.
“We’ve had a great re-
sponse from RxTGA pa- tient referrals. It’s evi- dent from conversing with these patients that they would not have ventured into our club without this prescription and a gentle nudge from their doctor. I believe this program has the po- tential to change many lives as we move peo- ple from the ‘contem- plative’ to the ‘prepara- tion’ stage of behaviour change.”
Scott Wildeman senior vice president of operations for International Fitness Holdings Inc. and Fitness Industry Council of Canada board member
Melanie Fuller, Prescription To Get Active Program project manager for the Edmonton area, will be pre- senting “Learn How Your Community Can Be Part of the ‘Prescription To Get Active’ Movement”at the canfitpro world fitness expo on Saturday, August 13, 1:00—2:30pm.
42 Fitness Business Canada July/August 2016
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