Biography
After completing her training in psychiatry at the University of Montreal in 1996, Dr. Lévesque completed further training (fellowship) in forensic psychiatry at the Philippe-Pinel Institute in Montreal in 1997.
Dr. Lévesque first began her practice in general psychiatry in remote areas. She worked both at Chaleur Hospital Center in Bathurst New Brunswick from 1997 to 1999 and at the local Centre de services communautaire (CLSC) Malauze in Matapedia. She was a member of the New Brunswick Review Board, Administrative Tribunal section from 1998 to 1999.
Dr Lévesque held a university position as clinical lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Montreal from 1999 to 2013. She was involved with students and residents in family medicine and residents in psychiatry. She is appreciated for its capacities for teaching and simplifying science. Over the years, she has given lectures on the assessment and management of dangerous patients, and has participated in scientific television broadcasts to the general public.
Dr. Lévesque has worked in several public organizations simultaneously. She held a position at the National Institute of Forensic Psychiatry Philippe-Pinel in Montreal from 1999 to 2013. She was assigned to the Expertise Unit until 2004 and was also a consultant in provincial detention facilities, Rivière- des-Prairies (men) from 1999 to 2008 and Tanguay (women) from 2006 to 2008.
Dr. Lévesque has also worked in other hospitals as an associate member. She was at the psychiatric emergency of the University Institute in Mental Health of Montreal (Hôpital Louis-H. Lafontaine) from 1996 to 1999 and of the Hôpital Sacré-Cœur de Montreal (Center de santé Mental Albert-Prévost) from 2009 to 2012. From 2009 to 2013, she also offered services to the University Institute on Rehabilitation in Physical Impairment of Montreal (Lindsay-Gingras) in consultation-liaison for patients with chronic pain or having difficulty adapting to their disability or functional limitations. She is also interested in the acute and chronic functional limitations associated with psychiatric pathologies.
Since 2010, Dr. Lévesque’s main practice has been with the Canadian Correctional Service. She currently provides services to offenders incarcerated in Cowansville and Donnacona penitentiaries. She has also worked in other detention facilities in the past such as Atlantique (1998 to 2001), Joliette (2010 to 2012), Drummondville (2011 to 2013), Leclerc (2011 to 2013), Federal Training Center (2014 ), Montée St-François (2014) and La Macaza (2016). She followed up federal inmates released into the community via the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) in Correctional Centers in the Martineau community (2011 to 2019), Marcel-Caron (2011 to 2020) and Laferrière (2014 to 2020) as well as to the Ville-Marie (2011 to 2019), Laval (2016 to 2020), Joliette (2018 to 2020) and Trois-Rivières (2017 to 2020) parole offices. Dr. Lévesque also took on the follow-up of sex offenders requiring hormonal treatment between 2011 and 2020.
Dr. Lévesque has extensive experience with federal government agencies and private companies. She provided services at the Laval Immigration Monitoring Center from 1999 to 2003. She worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs from 2004 to 2010 and from 2015 to 2016 at the Sainte-Anne Operational Stress Center at the Sainte-Anne Hospital in Sainte-Anne de Bellevue. There, she followed up soldiers and veterans suffering mainly from post-traumatic stress disorder as well as assessments in the context of pension rights and rehabilitation. Dr. Lévesque also worked in occupational medicine, as a regional doctor in the Occupational Health Program for Federal Civil Servants (PSPFF) from 2011 to 2012. She acted as a medical consultant with the National Bank, on the Insurance component, from 2011 to 2014 and still acts as an expert physician for disability cases at Canada Post. Dr. Lévesque was also a consultant at the Clinique Nouveau Départ in 2009, a center dedicated to the treatment of addiction in clients with psychiatric comorbidities.
Dr. Lévesque always had a private expertise course. She has been a member of the Société des experts en évaluation médicolégale du Québec since 2005. She provides expertise both at the civil level (occupational medicine, ability to test, etc.) and criminal (dangerousness, responsibility. Aptitude, etc.). She has more than 1,500 expertises to its credit for the past 25 years. She was therefore called upon to testify on numerous occasions before various legal and administrative instances.
Overall, Dr. Lévesque has been able to maintain a diversified practice, both in general psychiatry and in expertise, since her beginnings in 1996. She therefore stands out for her general understanding of different environments as well as for her knowledge of complex comorbid cases associated with substance use disorders.