Many of you know me as a professional speaker. I am! But I am also an occupational therapist. I still practice in my field in the SHOP program, a branch of my business.

Many years ago while treating illness, injury and disease in both the field of mental and physical health, I realized that prevention was where my heart was. It was so hard to watch people suffer especially when I realized that so much of what people were experiencing was preventable. I became a crusader for prevention.

Professional speaking about health and well-being is one way to beat the prevention drum. But another way is to work alongside people with injuries and symptoms and teach them how to prevent those symptoms from getting worse, teach them what their triggers are so that they can avoid those symptoms in the future, and help them get back to working happy, healthy and symptom-free. The birth of the SHOP program was the result. SHOP stands for Safety and Health for Organizations and People.

This program allows an occupational therapist and physiotherapist to be on site in workplaces where symptoms and injuries either develop or get exacerbated. Much of my work is in manufacturing, production, labour and even healthcare and offices, where people commonly develop repetitive strain injuries that can actually make them unable to work in physical jobs for the rest of their lives! I’ve seen it numerous times; an every day back injury that just doesn’t heal and goes south rapidly, deteriorating into chronic pain. I have seen many people be unable to return to their jobs and suffer with the effects of depression, decreased mobility, chronic pain and massive financial loss.

The goal of the SHOP program is embedded in the tagline “symptoms before syndromes”. I want to get people feeling well before their symptoms become something sinister that requires multiple medical appointments, diagnoses, medicine, surgeries, etc. It is a no-win situation when things get this far.

The SHOP program does not exist anywhere else in Canada in this form. It is an inexpensive, cost-effective way of keeping people happy and healthy at work, avoiding time loss and compensation claims and even finding more effective ways to work! It’s a win-win for employees and employers!

Our strength is in partnership, trust and hope. We link arm with all allies in healing and helping; HR, Unions, workers, managers, OSH, doctors, psychologists, and outside resources such as EAP, physiotherapy, massage therapy and chiropractors.

We get better together and the SHOP program is the most relevant and accurate way of truly determining work place risks, remediations and prevention.

Want to take your safety and health program to the next level? Book a free consultation and find out how SHOP can transform your workers and workplace into a healthy and thriving community! Get more information by visiting our SHOP page.