Elizabeth Joan (Betty Jo) de Grace

They say good things come in small packages and that is certainly the case for 76-year-old Betty-Jo de Grace. Standing under 5-feet tall hasn’t held Betty-Jo back. After moving to Kingston from Edmonton, Alberta to attend Queen’s University in 1968, Betty-Jo made Kingston home working in a successful career as a psychometrist from 1970 to 2000, and as a registered psychological associate from 2001 to 2017. An amazing 47 years.

“I joined the Experience Partner Program in 2021, which was a few years after I retired. It was a natural transition into something that wasn’t completely foreign. I was looking to fill that hole in my life and I am familiar with Providence Care because of the treatment I received.”
Betty-Jo has a life-long history of major depression and when she got to a certain age she needed to transition to a different medication that required inpatient support.

“I really appreciated everything people did for me at Providence Care. The team was very caring and I feel so happy now supporting not only the mental health services, but rehabilitation in general.”

Mental health is Betty-Jo’s specialty and she says she sees it from both angles, from a clinical staff perspective, thanks to her career, and the patient and client perspective because of her personal experience as an inpatient. She says when working on committees and working groups, she is always thinking about how it feels to be the one receiving care.

Betty-Jo has worked closely on Providence Care’s Accreditation process in the fall of 2022 and is the go-to-person for reviewing newly developed or revised policy. She is also an active member of the People-Centered Care & Engagement Steering Committee.

Betty-Jo considers herself a sticker for good grammar and punctuation. She is also much happier to have a team meeting in-person rather than online.