In early 2021, Carolyn Unsworth OT, PhD, was selected to receive the annual Lavigne-Smee Visiting Scholar Award by the School of Physical & Occupational Therapy (SPOT), McGill University. This award is granted each year to a high-profile scholar and/or knowledge-holder with the intention of hosting the recipient at SPOT and its partnering research facilities to provide opportunities for student and faculty meetings and discussions to foster the development of new research collaborations and perspectives. Unable to visit in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Unsworth provided an inspirational presentation to SPOT Master’s students virtually in August of 2021, explaining her work in community transport mobility. She took the time to highlight principles of thinking critically, and outside the box, to overcome challenges in various areas of both clinical practice and research approaches.
In April and early May of 2023, Carolyn Unsworth, Professor and Discipline Lead of Occupational Therapy, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, Federation University Australia, was finally able to visit the SPOT and its partnering research facilities. Professor Unsworth is a recognized scholar who holds several honorary and salaried appointments internationally. Notably, she holds an Adjunct Professor position in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Jönköping University, Sweden, and in the Department of Occupational Therapy at La Trobe University and at Monash University, Victoria, Australia. She was appointed by the Victorian Minister for Police as a member of the Road Safety Camera Commissioner Reference Group. ProfessorUnsworth is also an Associate Editor for The British Journal of Occupational Therapy since 2015.
Accompanied by SPOT hosts Professors Isabelle Gélinas and Barbara Mazer, the list of scholarly visits included the Lethbridge-Layton-MacKay Rehabilitation Center Driving Program in Montreal and the Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital Research Center lab sites in Laval, Quebec. Planned individual research meetings to exchange expertise on the pedagogical considerations in clinical reasoning were held as well as meetings to explore the research topics of driver assessment for older people and people with disabilities, driver rehabilitation and use of simulators, functional assessments and driving rehabilitation, public transport access, securement during travel for people using mobility aids and the development of evaluation tools, the latest being the AustOMs scale.
, an outcome measurement scale that can be used by healthcare professionals to demonstrate change over time in client status is the latest evaluation tool that Professor Unsworth has successfully developed. While presenting the tool to SPOT faculty and graduate students, she emphasized that sharing information and offering free access to newly developed evaluation tools is the key to success and clinician uptake.
The Lavigne-Smee Visiting Scholar
The Lavigne-Smee Visiting Scholar was established in 2016 through a bequest from Mrs. Charlotte Lavigne, (DipPT 1959) and a gift made in memory of Mrs. Willie Ruben-Smee (DipPT 1965).
Charlotte Lavigne was born in Montreal, and, after graduating from McGill as a physiotherapist, attended the Sorbonne in Paris to study French. She then began her career working in clinics in Lausanne, Switzerland, and in Scotland. After a few years abroad, she returned to Canada to continue her practice. She was highly regarded by her friends and colleagues for her skills, especially in her specialty of Manual Therapy.
Wilhelmina (Willie) Smee grew up in Montreal and attended McGill University. After graduating as a physiotherapist in 1965, she worked at the Kingston General Hospital and then, after her children were grown, she re-certified and worked in Toronto at the North York Hospital and Seniors’ Health Centre.
Both these exemplary clinicians were the role models of their time, and both felt strongly about their profession and their link to McGill, for which SPOT is very grateful.
Previous recipients of the Lavigne-Smee Visiting Scholar:
2017 - Rachel Kizony, PhD, The Use of Virtual Reality and Tele-Rehabilitation
2018 - Sandra Alouche, PhD, Neurological Rehabilitation
2019 - Angie Phenix, MOT, MIED, looking at cultural safety and why it matters as you go out into practice - where everyone should start in relation with Indigenous Peoples
2020 – G. Arun Maiya, MPT, PhD, Global Health in Rehabilitation, Type II diabetes and rehabilitation, peripheral neuropathy and chronic pain
