Former patient returns to train as a therapist
Occupational therapy student Jessica Tinney (right) with her preceptor Lisa Artero
By Louise Kinross
Jessica Tinney is an occupational therapy student at Holland Bloorview with a unique perspective. She was once a young child doing therapy here and shares an office with her childhood physiotherapist Chun Kim.
“I’ve run into all of my old clinicians on this placement,” Tinney says. “It’s definitely different being on the other side of things, but it’s exciting.”
Tinney first came to Holland Bloorview as a two-year-old. She did occupational and physical therapy, attended our reverse-integration kindergarten, and was followed by Dr. Golda Milo-Manson until she was discharged at age 18.
“I’ve never viewed my disability as an obstacle because I was born with it,” Tinney says. “To me it’s normal. I don’t know anything different. Things are easier or harder, and I have tools to help me like a wheelchair. Now I can go on longer walks and hikes with friends because if I was walking, I’d be exhausted. For me, my disability is just life.”
Tinney says her parents “gave me a lot of autonomy over what I wanted to do and if it was challenging, we’d figure out a way to do it. I owe a lot of credit to them for setting that tone.”
She recalls becoming more aware of her disability when kids in elementary school began skipping rope. “I didn’t have the coordination for that, and an OT had to come into my school and I’d stay in at recess to practise. I’ve always known I’ve had to work harder to do certain things. Learning how to skip was hard, but it was something I really wanted to do. I didn’t get a wheelchair till I was 18, when I was going to university and needed it to conserve energy going from class to class.”
An important part of Tinney’s childhood was joining an integrated swim team at Variety Village. “Parasport taught me that there are other kids like me. It’s where I met my close-knit friends. It also taught me that there are a million different ways to do one thing, and you can still do it together. The way I swim versus someone else there is completely different, but you swim the same race.”
Early on she was drawn by the social environment of swimming “but over time it became more of a competitive thing for me. I wanted to improve and make national teams, and that was a shared goal that everyone had.” Tinney swam for Canada in world championships in Portugal and England in 2022 and 2023.
Tinney did her undergraduate degree in kinesiology at Queen’s University. “Sport and body and movement was something I really enjoyed," she explains. "I wasn’t sure what I wanted to go in to after that. I joke that I never wanted to be a PT or OT because they made me do exercises I didn’t always enjoy, but the joke’s on me, because here we are.”
Once she learned more about occupational therapy, she felt it was a perfect fit for her mindset. “I’m always looking at different ways to do an activity or finding a creative way to do something and that’s a huge part of being an OT.”
Tinney is in her first year of occupational therapy at the University of Toronto and has been at Holland Bloorview for two weeks. She works in the neuromotor program—which is the program she attended as a child—and in prosthetics. “With children with cerebral palsy we’re working on how to draw lines or shapes or use scissors to cut paper, as well as how to dress themselves and tie shoelaces," Tinney says. "We do similar things in prosthetics but also look at how to use their new prosthetic in an activity like playing badminton or bike riding.”
Her preceptors are occupational therapists Linda Fay and Lisa Artero.
The greatest joy is “watching kids do activities that they enjoy and watching them accomplish something that is a goal of theirs,” Tinney says. “Watching their face light up is a really fun feeling.”
The greatest challenge of the placement is trying to absorb everything she’s learning in her first practical experience. “What we’re learning is so valuable and you want to be a sponge and take it all in and retain it.”
Tinney says being a former client helps her put herself in a child’s shoes. “I’ve lived the experience of being a client and working with clinicians. So far kids have had a very positive response to me. They’ve looked and smiled at my wheelchair, and some have asked me questions about the motor on it.”
Tinney manages stress by swimming five times a week. “It keeps my body moving and that’s what everyone has reiterated is important for me.”
She says her parents value the support they received at Holland Bloorview. “The connection gave them a lot of resources. They’ve always said they would have been lost without Bloorview, and especially without the team that looked after me.”
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