Fostering lung health through the Breathe Easy program and C.O.L.D. Club

When John Podridske first joined the Breathe Easy program in 2009, he could no longer breathe on his own. A former sandblaster and industrial painter, John was exposed to noxious chemicals for decades until a diagnosis of silicosis in 2008 forced him to quit his job. While the program helped him learn to manage his disease, his breathing continued to deteriorate until 2013, when he received a double lung transplant. Six months after the surgery, he returned to the Breathe Easy program to begin his rehabilitation

“The program helped me relearn how to breathe with my new lungs,” says John. “They had us do lots of different exercises, mostly breathing and stretching, that helped me regain my strength. Before long, I was able to walk without assistance and to function out in the world without being attached to oxygen. I continued to work the program until COVID hit, and I’ve recently rejoined it as maintenance.”

Developed at Covenant Health’s Edmonton General Continuing Care Centre by Dr. Fred MacDonald in 1992 and overseen by the Centre for Lung Health, the Breathe Easy program has been offered at the Gene Zwozdesky Centre at Norwood since last year while remaining under the Covenant Health banner. The program provides lung health education, supervised exercise and support to people diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or any other chronic lung condition.

It is funded through Alberta Health Services, with additional support from Covenant Foundation, and is available in many rural locations.

Since its beginnings in 1992, the Breathe Easy program has grown to become one of Canada’s leading lung rehabilitation programs, and it is now a standardized offering at numerous sites across the province while also being offered remotely to all who need it.

“We have a huge intake compared to other comparable programs,” says Tina Jourdain, a respiratory therapist who currently oversees the program.

“We’re fortunate to be one of the largest pulmonary rehab centres in the country, with the ability to enroll over 300 patients per year. We had over 3,000 people in the program a few years ago, and I believe it’s now up to around 5,000.”

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the program had been adapted to work remotely, with telehealth versions implemented in 2007 for several sites in northern and central Alberta. Thanks to this adaptation, the program is currently available to any Albertan who needs it and has even been offered as far away as Yellowknife.

“Since COVID, we've been able to use Zoom for exercise classes as well, which of course has opened it up to a ton of rural patients or even patients in the city who don't drive or don't want to drive, don't want to go out in the cold or don't want to take DATS. Now, classes can be done from the patient’s home after one in-person clinical session,” says Tina.

Patients referred to the program are initially assessed by a pulmonologist, with their oxygen levels, heart rate and other values monitored while they walk along a hallway or on a treadmill or ride a stationary bicycle.

Once assessed, patients work on breath retraining and tailored strength and endurance exercises. Supervised classes are available two or three times a week for those who need assistance, and in-person participants are provided with equipment and oxygen. The educational component of the program consists of lectures on everything from medication use and when to seek medical help to energy conservation and nutrition. The entire program lasts for six to eight weeks, with 16 sessions in total.

Ongoing support for Breathe Easy program participants and anyone else with lung disease and their families is provided through the C.O.L.D. (Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease) Respiratory Problems Club of Alberta. Established in 1987 by Dr. MacDonald and others, the club offers lectures by lung health experts, entertainment and, at times, even excursions for participants.

“There’s tremendous camaraderie within the club,” says Clarence Grosso, a retired respiratory therapist with Covenant Health’s Centre for Lung Health who volunteers his services with the C.O.L.D. Club.

“We have regular speaker sessions and barbecues. Pre-COVID we would take weekend trips to Kananaskis. We would give them a weekend in the mountains to get out and exercise, with medical staff available if anyone ran into trouble. I think the biggest group we had for this was 43 people. We had to discontinue these trips during COVID because the cost could no longer be justified on a per-person basis, but I occasionally get people asking if we plan to start them up again.”

As successful as the Breathe Easy program has been in its 30-plus years of existence, Tina asserts that there’s still room for improvement and expansion, and she encourages people to donate to the program to help improve its offerings and bring it to more people who need it.

“We’d really like to bring on more personnel from various disciplines,” she says.

“We have respiratory therapists, physical therapists and therapy assistants, and some of the rural sites have RNs as well. We have a dietitian, but she just comes in for one-hour educational sessions. Currently, we're having to refer out to social workers and occupational therapists. We'd love to have a dedicated social worker on our team.”

Tina also notes that parking continues to be an issue for many patients at the Norwood.

“We’d really like to be able to offer patients convenient, free parking. Currently, we only have pay parking at the facility, which creates obstacles for people. They’re faced with the choice of either paying to park close by or seeing if they can park for free somewhere in the neighbourhood. These are people with breathing difficulties, who are then faced with a substantial walk, which is pretty discouraging for them, especially in the winter.”

She adds that the Breathe Easy program is always looking to expand its in-person offerings to new communities.

“At one point pre-COVID, we were up to some 20 sites outside the Edmonton zone, but that number has contracted slightly due to some locations losing their funding for pulmonary rehabilitation. Every donation helps bring this program to more people who need it.”

Thanks to the program, John, now aged 66, is a healthy, energetic grandfather of five. He and his wife, Pat, are also benefactors of the Breathe Easy program, having donated $34,800 to the Centre for Lung Health, which oversees it.

“I wanted to give back to this community because it helped me to be able to live my best life,” says John.

“I was basically given a second chance. The Breathe Easy staff are very caring and wonderful people. This is my chance to give back to them, to help keep this program running. It's so important. I will keep making these cash donations for as long as I can.”