Why Choose Monarch House?

The Benefits of Centre-based Care

• At Monarch House, we ensure that services and resources are used efficiently, so that 100% of your funding can go directly to treatment.
• We provide the necessary supplies for treatment, which can cost upwards of $4,000 per year. 
• Our centre is specifically designed to include a sensory room, gross motor gym and designated treatment spaces.  This allows your child access to therapeutic resources not easily found in the community.
• Monarch House provides, trains and manages all professionals on your child’s treatment team.  This saves you a significant amount of both time and money having to:
  • Identify which professionals are necessary
  • Seek them out and hire them
  • Ensure they are adequately trained
  • Manage gaps in service due to holidays, sickness and turnover
• All members of the treatment team work closely together to provide the most effective treatment possible for your child.
• You have immediate and ongoing feedback of treatment sessions and progress
• Your home remains your home, allowing you to maintain a sense of family life and privacy     

Best Practices

Our inter-disciplinary approach includes the following best practices:

• Individualized treatment
• Comprehensive (across 6 developmental areas)
• Intensive, direct, one-to-one intervention
• High levels of predictability and routine
• Applied behaviour analysis  (ABA)
• Start by structured teaching, move to more natural settings
• Functional assessment and positive behavioural support techniques to address problem behaviours
• Use of integrated therapies (ie. SLP, OT, PT)
• Family involvement
• Trained and adequately supervised staff
• Regular monitoring of the child’s progress (parents and professionals)

Our Staff

Combined, the team at Monarch House Autism Centre has over 105 years of experience working with individuals who have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), other developmental delays and special needs.  Members of our treatment team are all highly trained in their area of expertise.  Our combined experience and expertise allows us to provide families dealing with a diagnosis of ASD with progressive assessments and treatment that adhere to current best practices in the field.  As a team, we continue to learn from each-other and attend trainings and education to best support our clients.

CHELSEA GANAM
Clinical Director
Chelsea Ganam has 14 years of experience providing services to families, children, and youth who are impacted by a diagnosis of ASD.  Her broad range of experience includes one-on-one and group intervention, assessments, development of behavior plans, training of behavior interventionists and parents, consulting to school and community programs, and developing intensive intervention programs.  She also has extensive counseling experience.  Chelsea's previous position as the Senior Behaviour Consultant with the Province of BC's Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) had her developing and advising program policy for BC's Provincial Autism Programs, creating expert panels within BC and across Canada, as well as participating as an advisory member to prominent ASD organizations in the field. She has a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology and is a registered member of the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors.

MEGAN SYMONDS
Board Certified Behaviour Analyst and Speech-Language Pathologist
Megan Symonds completed her Master's degree in Speech Sciences as well as additional Master's level courses in Special Education at the University of British Columbia.  Megan's broad experience includes working with children who have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other special needs on a multidisciplinary team in both the community and specialized autism program.  Her background and training includes Hanen certification, SCERTS training, SOS approach to feeding, PECS and assistive technology.

LESLEY BLOK
Senior Speech-Language Pathologist
Lesley Blok has been helping children with communication challenges for over 25 years.  Lesley received her Master of Science degree in Speech and Language Pathology at the University of British Columbia in 1982.  Since that time she has worked in a number of settings, including Holy Family Hospital, Variety Child Development Centre and Sunny Hill Hospital for Children.  From 1994 until 2009, Lesley had a successful private speech and language practice in North Vancouver.  In her private practice she focused on children with neurologically-based speech and language impairments.

JENNIFER MARSHALL
Behaviour Consultant
Jennifer Marshall has been working with children with autism for 12 years and is a "Category A" Behaviour Consultant on the Registry of Autism Service Providers (RASP).  Jennifer received a Master of Special Education (M.Ed.) with a focus in Autism from the University of British Columbia in 2008.  Her experience includes work at Toronto Preschool Autism Centre, which provided both center-based and home based programming to children under the age of 6.  While obtaining her M.Ed. she worked as a Behaviour Interventionist in family homes as well as a Behaviour Consultant providing behaviour support to families with school-aged children.  All of Jennifer's practice has been based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis.  She is well on her way to becoming a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst.

ZOË RAFFARD
Occupational Therapist
Zoë Raffard received her Masters in Occupational Therapy from UBC and currently works as an OT at Monarch House Autism Centre. In addition, she completed her diploma in the Infant Development Program from UBC with course work specifically in Autism.  Prior to joining Monarch House, Zoë worked with children who have a diagnosis of ASD and other developmental disabilities as a behaviour interventionist and as a researcher in child development.  She focuses her therapy on fine motor skills, sensory integration, and self-care skills.

MARY-LYNN MAHONEY
Occupational Therapist
Mary-Lynn has been a practicing Occupational Therapist since 2001 on the East Coast of Canada until she moved to the Lower Mainland in 2007.  She completed her second maternity leave before returning to her practice the following year at a child development centre in the area.  Mary-Lynn is very enthusiastic about contributing her expertise to our centre.  Most of Mary-Lynn’s clinical practice experience and training is related to pediatrics.  She has a developmental perspective, drawing on treatment philosophies such as TEACCH, Sensory Integration, Motor Learning Theory, and Cognitive-Behavioral approaches when working with children and their families.  Mary-Lynn practices from a family-centered model where she partners with families to create and achieve functional and fun goals from therapy!

Our Specialists

DR. HILARY KITSON  Pediatrician
DR. RUTH WINGREN  Paediatrician
DR. CINDY HANNA   Registered Psychologist
DR. STACEY ILLSELY  Registered Psychologist