Amanda Longfield
My Occupational Therapy journey began in high school. I was looking for career options in a giant book on ‘jobs’ when I landed on occupational therapy.
The one thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to work in healthcare, but I wasn’t sure what role was the best for me. I was familiar with physiotherapy but had never heard of occupational therapy. Once I read the description and focus of occupational therapy, I was intrigued. I called an occupational therapist at a local hospital to shadow and discuss their job. I wanted to understand the role of an occupational therapist (OT) in the lives of clients, the health care team, and the broader healthcare system. After that one day of learning about occupational therapy, I was hooked and there was no turning back.
When I started my Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy, I envisioned that one day I would ultimately end up working in a rehabilitation hospital. During my observation visits in the first month of school, I shadowed an OT working in the community and realized the importance of occupational therapists working in community settings. For my final placement, I was matched with a community school health setting. That placement cemented my love for community rehab care forever!
I started working at SE Health (then known as Saint Elizabeth Health Care) in 2004, right after graduation, and that was the beginning of my now 20-year career in home health care. I started working in school health and within a year added adult clients to my caseload providing care to clients in schools and homes. I felt honoured to be invited into people’s homes to deliver care and quickly learned that community care is about life care and caring for the person.
Over the years, I took on part-time clinical support roles, in addition to carrying my own caseload and providing support to our local office. These experiences uncovered my interest in leadership opportunities and allowed me to explore various ways of advocating and supporting our rehab teams.
In 2013, I was offered a part-time position as a Professional Development Leader for Adult Occupational Therapy at SE Health. In this role, I supported OTs by providing care to adult clients across our rehab sites in Ontario. Another opportunity arose in 2018 to continue to expand my leadership skills as an Advanced Practice Leader in Rehab, one of two positions – which was the first Advanced Practice Leader role in rehab at SE Health. Looking for further opportunities to advance and advocate for rehabilitation, I took on a secondment in 2022 focusing on rehab strategy. It was also an opportunity to further expand my project management skills. Through this opportunity and my current role as Director of Rehabilitation Strategy, Partnerships and Transformation, I have had the chance to work closely with leaders and direct care providers across various rehabilitation settings including community, hospital clinic, senior living, and driver assessment and training.
Although I have chosen to stay at only one organization, I have had many opportunities to grow, learn, and expand my clinical and leadership skills over the years. Whether in the field or supporting care in the community, I’m proud to bring hope and happiness to the people and teams I serve and support. I look forward to continuing my occupational therapy journey and building on my skills as an enthusiastic rehabilitation professional.