Objectives

1. Hold information sessions/meetings with physicians and pharmacists and/or schedule office visits.
2. Implement invitation strategies according to options selected by physicians.
3. Hold training sessions with volunteer peer health educators.
4. Develop a schedule of the CHAP sessions.

The planning for CHAP sessions will take from one to three weeks to complete. It will allow you to complete recruitment efforts, hold any information sessions, finish up with physician and pharmacy visits, hold volunteer peer health educator training sessions, contact patients as per physician’s requests, and make final preparations for the CHAP sessions.

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7.1 Information Sessions/Meetings

The Information Session Presentation in Appendix 3 is a sample PowerPoint presentation that can be modified for any scheduled information sessions and/or meetings in which information on CHAP is requested.

The following hand outs should be provided at face-to-face sessions/meetings:

Physicians:

• CHAP Fact Sheet (Appendix 2.2)
• Family Physician Letter of Understanding (Appendix 4.2)
• Family Physician Information Sheet (Appendix 4.3)
• CHAP Session Blood Pressure Recommendation Protocol (Appendix 4.4)
• Family Physician Frequently Asked Questions (Appendix 4.9)
• Risk Profile Recording Form (Appendix 7.3)

Pharmacists:

• Community Pharmacist Information Sheet (Appendix 5.1)
• CHAP Pharmacist Assessment Form (Appendix 5.2)
• Pharmacist Letter of Understanding (Appendix 5.3)
• Role of CHAP Pharmacist (Appendix 5.4)
• CHAP Session Blood Pressure Recommendation Protocol (Appendix 4.4)
• CHAP Fact Sheet (Appendix 2.2)

Volunteer Peer Health Educators:

• Letter of Understanding (Appendix 6.5)
• CHAP Fact Sheet (Appendix 2.2)

Physicians can choose a combination of two options to make their patients aware of CHAP.

As soon as a physician indicates how he/she would like his/her patients to be contacted to participate in CHAP, the local CHAP coordinator may begin the process for patient recruitment.

Option 1: Personalized invitation letter from family physician

The Local CHAP Coordinator will need to do the following to organize these letters.

1. Obtain a list of high risk older adults patients from the family physician or office staff. These patients are community-dwelling older adults.
2. Ask each physician to verify the list by crossing out individuals who are deceased or mentally and/or physically incapable of attending CHAP sessions in the community, or who reside in a hospital or Long Term Care Facility.
3. Obtain letterhead from each family physician’s practice for the invitation letters. Appendix 4.6 contains a sample Invitation Letter to Patients.
4. Ensure that the title of the person (example, Mr., Mrs., Miss) or the patient’s gender is indicated. This will ensure the letter is addressed appropriately.
5. Obtain the physician’s electronic signature to place at the bottom of each letter.

Option 2: Community-wide CHAP Advertising

1. Appendix 4.8 has a sample advertisement for local newspapers for community wide advertising.
2. This same advertisement can also be posted in the community in participating physicians’ offices and public buildings according to your communications plan.
3. The Local Lead Organization may also wish to send out media releases and/or public service announcements dependent on the communications plan.

Advertisements for the community will be generic in scope and will be written for the community-at-large. Ads are not specific to the site to which they are posted.

Regardless of the number of participating family physicians, community-wide advertising would still take place.

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7.3 Volunteer Peer Health Educator Training Sessions

The local CHAP coordinator will contact the volunteer peer health educators by telephone to confirm the dates of the training sessions. Participation in the training sessions is mandatory.

Training sessions should be held at a time to allow ample time for questions and hands-on experience with the automated blood pressure measuring device and the Risk Profile Recording Forms.

Appendices 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, and 6.4 contain PowerPoint presentations for each training session which can be downloaded and modified to best suit the needs of volunteers.

The community health nurse will lead the training sessions. The Local CHAP Coordinator should coordinate and be present at each session. This is an opportunity to continue to establish a rapport with the volunteers.

The topics to be covered during the training sessions include:

• Overview of cardiovascular health issues
• Background information on high blood pressure/hypertension
• Healthy versus non healthy lifestyles
• Modifiable versus non-modifiable risk factors
• Details on the workings of the CHAP sessions
• The role of the volunteer peer health educators
• Review CHAP session set-up

Following the first training session, each volunteer must sign a CHAP Volunteer Peer Health Educator Letter of Understanding (Appendix 6.5) in order to continue to participate in the Program. The local CHAP coordinator will confirm with the volunteers that the schedule of CHAP sessions.

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7.4 Schedule of CHAP Sessions

The CHAP session schedule is a priority, and a well organized schedule is necessary for the successful operation of the CHAP sessions.

We suggest CHAP sessions are scheduled in the morning for the following reasons:

• Holding all sessions at a designated time of day helps to improve the accuracy of the blood pressure readings. Given that blood pressure tends to fluctuate throughout the day, a standardized schedule for to take readings is necessary.
• CHAP pilot studies revealed that the majority of participants preferred morning sessions.

When developing the schedule, keep in mind that all pharmacies do not open at the same time. Coordinators need to be at each session 15 minutes prior to the session start time and will have to be aware of each pharmacy’s regular business hours.

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7.5 Preparing the CHAP Session Schedule

The following is a step-by-step process to preparing the CHAP session schedule.