Peer-to-Peer Support for Women Living with Heart Disease
After Hope Sarfi had bypass surgery last year, she had good support from family and friends. They helped her out where they could, some learned about her condition and they listened to her concerns—everything you could want from those closest to you. But she felt something was missing. That something was sharing experiences with others who had gone through the same thing. The people around her could understand only so much about how she found the surgery frightening and what it felt like learning she had to adapt to having a lifelong condition. Lucky for Sarfi, the University of Ottawa Heart Institute recently launched Women@Heart, a volunteer peer-to-peer support program in which women not only learn more about their disease but meet others who have heart conditions.
