Occupational therapist Jasmine Kuchenbrand, who owns Healthology Consulting, talked about the services she provides for women and kids at the Rotary Club of Lloydminster on Monday. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Jasmine Kuchenbrand has found her niche as an occupational therapist.
She’s the owner and practitioner of Healthology Consulting in Lloydminster and spoke about the paediatrics services and pelvic services she provides at the Rotary Club of Lloydminster’s Monday lunch.
Kuchenbrand told the Meridian Source beforehand she once did a work placement in prison while discovering how diverse occupational therapy, or OT for short, is.
“It can be a lot of areas,” she said.
She says there are OTs that work with the Workers Compensation Board on workplace injury, OTs that work in long-term care facilities that might do wheelchair assessments, and OTs who work in mental health or help patients with hip and knee surgeries transition back to their homes.
“I specialize in kids and women, or paediatrics and pelvic health,” said Kuchenbrand.
She works with kids aged 2 to 18 with or without a diagnosis in areas such as developing better visual-motor skills, social, and play skills.
“With kids, I am helping parents with independence and sometimes I am helping with emotions and regulation with fine motor skills like writing or cutting,” explained Kuchenbrand.
“I also help with toilet training and if they are having trouble with dressing.”
A lot of her young clients come from parent or teacher referrals with parental health plans providing coverage along with funding from Saskatchewan for some kids diagnosed with autism.
She also helps women with a range of issues from pelvic pain and prenatal and postnatal care to bowel or bladder incontinence or those dealing with partial or complete abdominal separation.
“I’m actually quite busy,” said Kuchenbrand.
“My home clinic is in Lloydminster and we have a farm near Meadow Lake, so I work out there too, and then I work around Battleford.”
She describes her Healthology clinic as being “a commercialized character home” across from the Alberta Provincial Court.
“It’s a little greenhouse so I really wanted to do a character home because as an OT, I work on people’s life skills, and so for kids, what better place to do it than a house,” she said.
Kuchenbrand has a master of science degree in occupational therapy and spoke about the indirect career path she took to her profession after graduating from Holy Rosary High School.
“I thought I was going to go into law or be a psychologist, and then I started volunteering at a long-term care facility and I just really liked the interaction I got from just visiting with them, and then I looked at different therapy professions,” she said.
Initially, she earned a psychology degree at the University of Saskatchewan and latched on to a masters in OT at the University of Alberta, loving how diverse occupational therapy is.
Kuchenbrand also likes the fact OTs help people get back to meaningful everyday activities, including some hands-on therapy.
“For a kid, if I’m working on their growth (development) motor for their shoulders or any of those motors, I will be doing more hands-on,” she said.
“I also do direct therapy where I do parent coaching because that child sees me once a month, so I need to build the skills with the mom and dad.”
She says she wants to build and empower parents to apply different skills since their children can’t always come to the clinic due to costs.
“If I can build skills with parents that’s where it goes a long way,” Kuchenbrand said.
