Debbie has been practicing as a paediatric physiotherapist for the past 30 years since her graduation in 1979 from the South Australian Institute of Technology.
Over the past 30 years Debbie has gained extensive experience in working with families to assist them to access different services within their community. In addition Debbie has developed a rich and deep range of treatment philosophies. The central premise of these philosophies is an emphasis on a family-based approach to intervention.
From 1979 to 1981 Debbie worked as part of the neurology and head injury team at Adelaide Children’s Hospital. In this capacity she worked with children from 0-16 years.
In 1981 she moved to Darwin where she was the sole Paediatric Physiotherapist at the Northern Territory Spastic Centre and the Darwin Hospital. Here she was instrumental in helping set up screening procedures for children at risk of developmental delay.
She then worked in both the Children's Hospitals in Sydney from 1984 to the end of 1985 in the areas of neurological in and out patients.
From 1986 the 1995 she worked part-time at the Sir David Brand Centre in Western Australia and on the school based therapy team whilst raising three small children.
In 1995 Debbie spent 6 months in Queensland working in early intervention and school aged services as part of a multidisciplinary team servicing a large inland area.
Since moving to Sydney in 1996 Debbie has worked for the Department of Ageing and Disability in the Early Intervention team based in the Inner West. The service is home based and Debbie has particularly enjoyed this insight into working within the child‘s environment. In 1999 Debbie started working with Lifestart in Marrickville in addition to her work with DADHC and has been responsible for starting a playgroup for babies with special needs.
In early 2001 Debbie started her own private practice and in October 2001 joined Central Paediatrics as part of their holistic approach to working with children. In the next 5 years Debbie’s skills base increased dramatically as she adapted to seeing children from 0-15 with a multitude of problems from a flat head (plagio cephaly) to Cerebral Palsy.
By the end of 2007 Debbie had outgrown small treatment room at Central Paediatrics and with much sadness moved on to new premises.
Her vision to provide premises that were family friendly, disability friendly and have multiple allied health professional’s onsite to promote sharing of information for more complex cases was achieved in 2008. In 2008 she went into partnership with Prue Nix at Therapies for Kids which has proved successful and is exceeding both their expectations as a complete service model.
Debbie continues to work with enthusiasm and playfulness fostered by the children and families who attend her practice and help her continue to learn.
Debbie shares a visions with Rebekah to provide physiotherapy services overseas in her holiday breaks.
Debbie Evans
Email: d.evans@therapiesforkids.com.au
02 9519 0966
79A Nelson Street
Annandale NSW 2038