2016 Health Care Champions Therapist: Melanie Stinnett

Two and a half years ago, Melanie Stinnett set out to build a specialized health care company to help develop communication in the Ozarks.

An opportunity to fill in the gaps came in October 2014, when the Missouri Rehabilitation Center closed.

“Our region lost a vital resource for assistive communication and technology services,” Stinnett says. “I accepted the challenge of offering this service for southwest Missouri.”
 
Today, TheraCare Outpatient Services LLC serves pediatric and adult clients through speech, occupational and music therapy, as well as oral and facial muscle treatment. After the Missouri Rehabilitation Center’s closure, Stinnett picked up alternative and augmentative communication device evaluations and training for people who are nonverbal or have a limited ability to communicate.

The company provides private schools a number of services, including on-site screenings and treatment.

Stinnett aims to ensure children are ready to learn when they enter school.

“I feel that my role in the overall picture of health care in the Ozarks is to continue growing our clinic to provide quality services filling the needs of our community,” she says. “It is highly important to me that children have quality services, providing them the best opportunities for success.

“I want to see children receive early, effective services so that they can enter into preschool or kindergarten with confidence.”

Stinnett’s work has caught the attention of business neighbor and nonprofit friend GYN Cancers Alliance. Executive Director Jan Robbins has watched TheraCare Outpatient Services’ outreach to children expand daily.

“Her passion for providing services, resources and tools in both speech language pathology as well as occupational therapies during a child’s pre-K years continues to garner excellent outcomes in preparing young children for life at school and providing parents with affordable resources found nowhere else in southwest Missouri,” Robbins says of Stinnett.

Robbins says TheraCare also provides speech and occupational therapies for adult stroke, ALS and related-needs patients, but evidence of the number of young children being treated daily in the nonclinic environment continues to grow by leaps and bounds.

Stinnett’s proudest professional accomplishment was establishing the firm’s nonprofit, TheraCare Foundation Inc.

The organization in its first year provided resources to parents through a web portal and worked to support therapy services, including for preschool children with special needs, in the community.

“The continued and growing therapy needs in our area, paired with a lack of or minimal insurance reimbursement, made it apparent that it was time to appeal to our community to help us provide the appropriate services for children in our region,” Stinnett says.