Meet Heather Stein of SteinCare Mobile Outpatient and SteinCare NeuroFitness Parkinsons Gym in Scottsdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Stein.

Heather, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am an occupational therapist from Cleveland, Ohio. Moved to Arizona 5 years ago. Worked primarily in-home health and began to notice a very high rate of Parkinson’s client who were not having the Parkinson’s addressed. In fact, most clients were circling through hospitals due to falls than extended stays at skilled nursing facilities and sent home with home health. However, no one was treating the Parkinson’s. Therefore the cycle would begin again every 3-6 months, and the Parkinsons again was never addressed by the therapist. I started seeing client pro bono the first six months as I secretly would treat clients who were discharged from home health. I was utilizing a program specifically designed for Parkinson’s called lsvt big. This continued for many months, building from one client to three to 10. I almost had no time for my actual paying job. I had to find a way that I could make this work for myself and be of service to this population who were continuously left behind by the healthcare system. So the mission began. I continued studying, and acquired certification in other Parkinson’s programs called pwr moves and rock steady boxing. It was literally an evolution I cannot explain. For whatever reason, two very fearless women both quit the jobs they had and followed me off the cliff, Anne Ladner and Apryl Horton, both occupational therapy assistants. My husband Michael Stein has been my rock and eventually with many years behind his belt in sales a marketing jumped off the cliff as well and left his secure job to help market and launch this endeavor. We left the security of our jobs and health insurance behind and jumped right off the cliff into what we now call the Parkinson’s project. In the two years, we have been of service to this community I formulated a mobile outpatient only for Parkinson’s clients where we go into the homes of folks that cannot leave due to impairment and have maxed out on home care visits through other agencies. We have grown from 1 to 9 outlaw therapists in that time. We have gone in on hospice patient and helped them recover from stage 5-3. We go in on clients that are left behind by the healthcare therapy system. We are not the cure, but we bring hope and sunshine. It’s amazing what can be done when someone is given hope. We are currently in 3 assisted livings and offer free pwr moves classes to the public. We are opening a gym in Scottsdale Sept. 1st that is a gym membership where we will welcome all stages of Parkinson’s disease and offer rock steady boxing, pwr moves and a program called Big for life. We want to service all those that term out from standard healthcare with an affordable option so they can live the best life ever!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The biggest struggle is fumbling our way through the bureaucracy of the healthcare system and Medicare itself. I have found the best way past something is through it. Some nights I just wanted to throw my hands up and quit and go back to the safety of working for another company who doesn’t even know my name only my national provider number. I have found there are a lot of people who don’t have the same intentions, and then I have found there are many dreamers just like me and the other therapists and assistant therapist that work for me now. We are a group of “outlaw” therapists. (At least that’s what we call ourselves). We quit our jobs and knew we could make a real difference to these folks in our very small piece of the world. I have had to learn that if we want it done, we have to do it ourselves

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I’m known around town as the Parkinson’s OT. We deliver Parkinson’s programs as designed and then also have discovered anomalies that we were never taught during our extensive PD training. We have designed our own programs using sensory integration and what we call sensory flooding. Our Parkinson’s gym is set to open in September, and it will be a raw, old gym where real Parkinson’s warriors go to fight the fight of a lifetime. Nothing fancy, but we want our gym to focus on abilities, not disabilities, and there will be no clinical feeling to the gym what so ever. We will push folks to go past they’re perceived limits as we have found this method works. We use the term “earns your exhaustion” as Parkinson’s is known to cause extreme fatigue we have seen we can push folks to the limit and they love it, and their whole outlook changes. They think to themselves, yes I can! And they do.

When you look back, what are you most proud of?
It’s always the first time the client stands on their own or take the first step or when they lose their balance, and they catch themselves falling but don’t all by themselves. The eyes!! They light up so bright we can see right to the soul. It’s truly amazing, and I am personally so honored I get to see it. Honestly, I could be anyone. We are not important in itself; this is a movement, and we want to give these folks a place to achieve goals safely.

Contact Info:

• Address: SteinCare Mobile Outpatient
  480-295-9342
  Parkinson’s Gym
  7835 E Gelding Rd Suite F
  Scottsdale, AZ 85260
  602-919-9701
  Free Parkinson’s exercise Class
  Inspira of Arrowhead
  20240 N 78th ave
  Glendale AZ 85308
  Fridays 11:00 AMFree Parkinson’s Class
  Free Parkinson’s Class
  Acoya Mesa
  6502 e brown rd
  Mesa, AZ 85205
  480-275-8300
  Tuesday’s 11:00 AM
• Website: Steincare.com
• Phone: 480-295-9342
• Email: info@steincare.com
• Facebook: steincare mobile outpatient

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