Lyndsey Stevenato

After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1986, I accepted the Northern Ontario Bursary to serve remote northern communities and landed in Sudbury, Ontario. Although my true passion was working with children, I spent a year in adult rehabilitation at Laurentian Hospital to gain experience. To my pleasure, the hospital had a children’s treatment centre, where I happily joined their staff the following year. Over the next three years, my learning curve soared. I created their first Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis program and became the first occupational therapist on the Integrated Services for Northern Children team. This gave us a unique opportunity to fly into remote areas of Northern Ontario to treat children who did not have access to any services. I met my husband there, and then we shifted to London. I joined CPRI as a senior occupational therapist in the school health program.

After that, a great opportunity came up, and I took it, becoming a manager at a home care organization in Barrie. I managed the occupational therapists in the school health program, along with social workers and speech-language pathologists. In this role, I learned an immense amount regarding health management and administration. As this role became more focused on management, I realized I needed to return to my true love of treating children. I then became an independent contractor at the Community Care Access Center (CCAC) and weathered the many changes in the agency over the years. I took a part-time position at Royal Victoria Hospital and became the first-ever pediatric OT there. I worked in the preschool program but the most exciting part was carving the role of OT in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). We established a multi-disciplinary team approach and developed the first follow-up clinic for children leaving the NICU who were at risk for developmental delays.

At this point, I was 15 years into my career and had gained numerous unique experiences. I love challenges so I took a huge leap into the daunting world of private practice. Back in my final year at the University of Toronto, I had a placement with Ellen Yack in the first year of her private practice. This was a golden opportunity to see how private practice functioned. For an OT to have their own clinic was unheard of at that time. I gained my skills from her to succeed with this leap! At that stage of my career, I thought the best way to make a real lasting difference in the lives of children was hands-on therapy. Unfortunately, the public trend was moving towards a consultative approach, which I felt did not meet the unique needs of the children. I worked alone in my clinic between 2001 and 2003, and added an admin and other OTs after that. In 2008, my staff and I saw the need for a day camp for children who couldn’t attend community camps. These camps grew from a half-day, one-week program, to now a full day 5-week program that helps 120 campers have a successful day camp experience. We are also proud of our many groups and a kindergarten readiness program.

2012 was a pivotal year for me. Feedback from the families we serviced, voiced a need to have more services under one roof,  a one-stop shop. Thus, we transformed into a multi-disciplinary clinic. Currently, we offer OT, SLP, SW, psychotherapy, behavioural coaching, and psychology services in two different clinics: one in Barrie and another in Parry Sound. With 24 staff members, we continue to grow!

I have been blessed with a career that provided unique and creative learning opportunities to build this clinic. Some opportunities came by chance, but most were calculated stepping stones to develop something that now services two communities. As I enter year 38 of my career as an OT, many new ideas and programs are on the horizon. It has been a fulfilling journey with many bumps along the way, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.