Take the Pressure Down is a joint initiative of the Heart and Stroke Foundation BC & Yukon and Beacon Community Services. The program consists of community clinics providing blood pressure monitoring, risk assessments and education about hypertension. 

The program started as a project on the Saanich Peninsula, and in January 2011, expanded to include Saanich and Victoria. Read all about it the News Release: Free Clinics Launched to Take the Pressure Down in Victoria and Saanich.

For the dates, time and locations of the free clinics, please see www.takethepressuredown.ca.

Further Information

High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure (hypertension) increases your risk of getting heart disease, kidney disease, or Alzheimer’s disease, and of having a stroke. It is important to have your blood pressure checked regularly, since high blood pressure often has no warning signs or symptoms. Regular monitoring can help ensure that hypertension is diagnosed before it leads to other health problems. If you are already being treated for hypertension, monitoring helps your doctor to make sure that the treatment is working to keep your blood pressure under control. Blood pressure can be difficult to assess, because it naturally fluctuates. Some people have a higher or lower reading only when they are in the doctor’s office. Readings from Take the Pressure Down sessions can help your doctor know what your blood pressure is like when you are not in the doctor’s office.

Take the Pressure Down

The Take the Pressure Down program on the Saanich Peninsula is a way for adults to have their blood pressure measured with an accurate, automated device, with help from a trained volunteer. The volunteer also helps participants to complete a checklist of other risk factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke.

Participation in Take the Pressure Down involves having your blood pressure measured and completing a cardiovascular risk factor profile with assistance from a volunteer ‘peer health educator’, a volunteer with training in cardiovascular health promotion. You can attend multiple sessions: it’s a good idea to come several times so that more information is available to your doctor.

Research

The effect of the program on cardiovascular health is being studied in the Saanich Peninsula. You will be asked to indicate whether or not your identifying information (name, gender, date of birth, postal code) and your blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factor information can be linked to anonymized administrative data to study the effect of the program. The partners in this program are the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC & Yukon and Beacon Community Services.  If you agree to have your information used for this study, your information will be anonymized, so that you are no longer identified. Once that’s done, information about your use of health services and medications will be obtained and combined with that of other Take the Pressure Down participants.

Your Participation

At any time, you can discontinue your participation by no longer attending sessions, or withdraw your consent to have your information shared by calling: Take the Pressure Down Coordinator, Caroline Macey-Brown at 250-661-8792.

The information collected will be kept secure and private. It will not be given to any other person or organization. When we examine the data, we will look at large amounts of information, in this case all adults who have participated in a Take the Pressure Down session. No single person’s records or personal information will ever be reported.