Dr. Joyce Stevens has been a physician with the Michigan Health Specialists Group since March 2007. She is Board Certified by the American Board of Family Practice and is a member of the American Academy of Family Practice. While she specializes in women and children, she most enjoys treating families as a whole. “I see everybody,” she says with a smile. “I like helping people – a variety of people – I like getting them healthy.”
Dr. Stevens grew up in the Kalamazoo area, and for as long as she can remember, she wanted to be a doctor. “When I was six years old, my mother and I were in a car accident and she was killed. I spent six weeks in the hospital and they didn’t expect me to live. It had a major impact on my life.” After that experience, she knew that she wanted to help other people.
So, she earned her medical degree from Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine in East Lansing. She initially thought about being a pediatrician, but decided that she liked family medicine better. “I like the variety of having a lot of different issues to deal with,” Dr. Stevens says. She completed her family practice residency at the Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies, and practiced medicine in the Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids areas for several years. After a downturn in the economy, she moved to the Lake Orion area and worked at a 24-hour urgent care facility for over two years.
Dr. Stevens now lives in Attica with her husband, Darin Lindsey, and enjoys her family practice with the Michigan Health Specialists Group. There, she treats conditions including colds, hypertension, diabetes, depression, chronic pain and lacerations, and also performs mole removals and minor surgeries. “I don’t deliver babies,” she laughs. What she likes best about her work is family care. “It’s gratifying to treat families and become a part of their lives. I’m not just treating a disease and the person, I’m treating the family as well, and how illness affects the family’s life.” What she likes least about her vocation is taking care of patients who don’t want to help themselves. “I give them the tools to stay healthy, but I also tell my patients that they have to do their part. I am very open and honest and I don’t hold back. I tell them what they need to do to be healthy.”
Outside of work, Dr. Stevens enjoys reading and spending time with her husband and their two dogs – an Alaskan-Siberian husky mix and a miniature American Eskimo. “I spend a lot of time in the Michigan outdoors,” she says, “But if I could live in the Florida Keys, I would.”
Photo by Eric Dutro
