Rehabilitation services are a vital part of the specialized care Providence Care offers to the community. Last year, Providence Care provided rehabilitation services to more than 500 hospital inpatients and more than 3,000 outpatients from across our region—from Brighton to Prescott, and north to Bancroft.

In August 2024, the YGK Healthcare Champions, a group of young professionals in the Kingston region supported by University Hospitals Kingston Foundation (the fundraising arm of Providence Care) came together to raise money for Providence Care’s rehabilitation services. Through their inaugural YGK Healthcare Champions Golf Tournament, they raised $40,000 to purchase vital rehabilitation equipment. This equipment helps staff  like Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy Assistant Penny Freeman and Physiotherapist Olivia Manning, work with patients to rebuild strength, regain their endurance, and reclaim their life after a traumatic health event such as a heart attack, stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury or amputation.

“Being on a complex medical floor, we see everything from patients that can participate [in rehabilitation] quite a bit to patients that are recovering very slowly and working on bed exercises. Our patients always want to get better though, and in most cases they  want to go home. Pets are such a big part of that, too,” she adds.

Penny has provided rehabilitation services for hospital inpatients for 22 years. She works at Providence Care Hospital on the Heritage 2 complex medical and palliative care inpatient unit.

“Sometimes progress is really slow and it’s a natural human tendency for everyone to want to be better yesterday,” explains Penny. “It can take a lot of motivating on our part, but it’s so rewarding when you see patients make progress. Lots of them have been on really difficult and challenging journeys.”

Patients with complex medical conditions, like the individuals Penny works with, make up about 12 per cent of Providence Care’s rehabilitation inpatient population. 11 per cent of all rehabilitation inpatients are recovering from spinal cord injuries, eight per cent from amputations and eight per cent from brain injuries. More than half of Providence Care’s rehabilitation patients (61 per cent) are admitted for stroke or orthopedic (musculoskeletal injuries, diseases, or surgery) recover.

Physiotherapist Olivia Manning works alongside Penny and provides rehabilitation for patients facing many different challenges. She says there is no “one size fits all” in terms of the right approach in the care she provides.

“You really have to get to know a person and what’s going to work for them – how you’re going to motivate them, or how you’re going to ask them the hard questions and start to talk about going home and all of those other stressful things.”

Olivia has been so inspired by the rehabilitation field that she has recently completed her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences at Queen’s University. Balancing a love of physiotherapy and research, she jokes that she has been a life-long student.

Olivia has also helped build and launch the new Outpatient Rehabilitation Stroke program at Providence Care Hospital, which sees patients dealing with the effects of stroke receive multiple outpatient therapies, like physiotherapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy, in back-to-back appointments to make recovery more convenient and effective for patients.

“No day is the same. And I really enjoy the challenge of rehab – no patient is the same, even someone who has the exact same condition can be so different. What I love the most about rehabilitation is getting to know the patients who we’re meeting in the most challenging periods of their life. Just being able to connect with them and provide that critical support and hope.”

Being able to see the ability in a patient that they can’t see in themselves is an important part of Olivia’s work.

“If they are doubting themselves, being able to let them know that I know they can do it – that moment of trust is so special and very treasured to me. Those are the successful moments at the end of the day.”

The rehabilitation successes Olivia speaks so highly about will now be able to occur faster and more efficiently thanks to the updated equipment purchased with the funds raised by the YGK Healthcare Champions. Providence Care staff give patients the opportunity to heal, regain independence, and return to the life they once knew with their loved ones which wouldn’t be possible without community support for vital equipment, tools and supplies.

On this Rehabilitation Day, we celebrate our Providence Care staff dedicated to our patient’s wellness and recovery along with the community partners who make providing specialized care and equipment possible. It truly takes a village! We are better together.

Interested in learning more about the YGK Healthcare Champions or making a donation? Visit uhkf.ca today.

Are you interested in a career in rehabilitation at Providence Care? Visit our current career opportunities.