About Cold River Health
Homestead Health and Wellness
Cold River Health originated in Stow, Maine, on one of the oldest farms in town. Built by Hugh Gordon in 1800, Dr. McElroy and her family purchased the farm in 2019 and named it Mountain Song Farm. As they settled into the rugged land and massive renovation projects, she formulated her vision to provide traditional family medicine coupled with a holistic wellness approach. The opportunity to locate her practice in nearby Lovell, Maine, in 2022 allowed Cold River Health to come to fruition to serve the residents of the Cold River Valley with a focus on the needs of this unique community.
"Having worked as a hospital employee and in Federally Qualified Health Centers, I have witnessed the limitations these practice models and insurance companies place on physicians. We cannot address the complex health needs of our patients in short appointment times and still provide the best quality care.
"My independent practice is designed around the belief that to truly improve health and wellness, we must enter a partnership between physician and patient and work toward attainable health goals."
Offering traditional primary care for all ages with a focus on Lifestyle Medicine, appointments may include walking visits, trying a new healthy recipe, engaging in mindfulness practice, or visiting the animal residents of Mountain Song Farm for a wellness retreat.
Health is complex and achieving your best health requires a creative approach!
Dr. Candice McElroy
Dr. Candice McElroy is a Family Physician who has been providing primary care in Maine since 2011 and is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and a Diplomate of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. Her approach to medicine is to focus on the individual and to partner with patients to achieve their best health.
Dr. McElroy attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree and completed a Master of Arts at Wesleyan University. While teaching elementary and middle school music, she decided that the best application of her interests and skills would be to enter medicine. She took medical school prerequisite courses in the evenings and summers as a teacher and was accepted to the University of Massachusetts Medical School where she completed her Doctorate in Medicine. She was drawn to family medicine due to the breadth and complexity of treating the whole family and her special interests in women's and children's health.
During her time as a resident at the Lawrence Family Medicine Residency, she cared for a medically and culturally diverse population which prepared her for the full spectrum of family medicine practice. In 2011, she and her family moved to Maine where she worked at York Hospital until assuming the medical directorship of Sacopee Valley Health Center in 2019. In 2021, she began planning Cold River Health with the goal of opening a practice that serves the medical needs of her patients beyond what could be accomplished in a traditional practice by taking a more holistic approach and in 2022 hung out her shingle and opened the doors to her fully independent practice. She hopes to open her farm for wellness events in the future and is working toward her certification as an Equine Specialist in Mental Health and Learning through the Professional Association for Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH, Inc.) to bring her love of horses and helping people together.
Dr. McElroy is blessed to share her time outside of medicine with her husband and three boys. The family also includes a menagerie of animals from cats to dogs and horses with a few other critters in between. She enjoys writing and playing music, crafts, riding and training her equines, and generally spending time outdoors on the farm and with her family.
