What Sets us Apart
from other
rehab providers

Structured specifically for Disability Claimants

• We ONLY treat disability claimants with chronic physical and/or mental health conditions, with the primary focus on helping them get back to work.

• Each claimant will have an individualized exercise/pool program specifically designed for their unique needs by our physical therapist and one of our staff kinesiologists.

• Our kinesiologists administer and supervise their one-on-one activation program, which is scheduled 1 hour per day, 3 days a week.

Located in 3 community YMCA Health & Wellness Facilities

• Our treatment model takes the claimants out of the clinic setting and brings them into the community setting to help them connect with their health and well-being on a lifetime basis, so that once they finish their program, they can maintain their connection to their health and well-being, and also maintain their social connection in the community.

Pro-Active Approach

• Having their rehab program take place in a YMCA Health & Wellness Centre shows the claimants that there are many people (just like them) at these facilities who are improving their health and abilities through a pro-active approach rather than the passive approach often seen in healthcare services.

Social Re-Integration

• The community setting is important for short-term socialization, as well as to provide claimants with a long-term viable option for sustaining exercise as part of their ongoing chronic health condition management plan.

Each claimant is provided with a YMCA membership card

• When they arrive (even if they are early), they just scan their YMCA pass at the front desk to enter, change in the locker rooms, lock up their items in the free lockers which uses their pass to lock them, and then come to the fitness centre to start warming up.

• We encourage all claimants to arrive before their scheduled time and start a cardio warm-up on their own.

• Because we are not a clinic, claimants don’t have to check-in with a receptionist or sit in a waiting room.

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Full-size Fitness Centre and Pool at every YMCA location

• The Fitness Centre - offers countless different options for physical conditioning, to meet the individualized needs of each claimant.

• The Pool - provides a safe and controlled environment for claimants with more severe weight-bearing joint problems, claimants with severe obesity, as well as claimants with balance compromise at risk of falling. This has been proven to be invaluable in severe low back pain, and hip & knee arthritis to allow claimants to work harder to increase fitness without aggravating their pain.

Child Minding: in-house daycares at all YMCAs

• Free Child Minding is included with a child's membership - 2 hours per day (memberships are free for children under 2, small fee for children 2 to 12).  Hours vary per centre, please call for availability.

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Additional benefits for claimants

• Their YMCA membership card also entitles them to come in on their own if they want (in addition to their On-Site sessions) and access:

  • All YMCAs any day of the week during operating hours  (check the YMCA link at https://ymcanab.ca/locations?type=health-wellness,child-care,other-services&region=edmonton&amenities as hours vary slightly at each location)

  • Free access to the swimming pool, indoor walking track, racquet courts, full fitness centre with a huge variety of cardio machines and free weights, gymnasium for drop-in badminton, basketball, and pickleball.

  • All drop-in programs for free (i.e. yoga, aquasize, Zumba, etc).

  • A 3-trial pass is available for up to 10 friends and/or family members to try out the facility prior to making the financial commitment of a membership.