Therapeutic Recreation - Filling In The Gaps

By William Wright, CTRS

TR is used in a number of clinical and non-clinical settings including: Schools, Hospitals, Rehabilitation Centers, Summer Camps, Centers for Independent Living, Psychiatric Facilities, Nursing Homes, Community Mental Health Centers, Correctional Facilities, Substance Abuse Facilities, Home Heath Care Agencies, and many more. TR helps people with physical disabilities, developmental disabilities, mental illness, older adults with limitations, alcohol and drug users, at-risk youth, and juvenile and adult offenders.

 What is "Therapeutic Recreation"? The National Therapeutic Recreation Society (NTRS) which defines Therapeutic Recreation as the following: "Practiced in clinical, residential, and community settings, the profession of Therapeutic Recreation uses treatment, education, and recreation services to help people with illnesses, disabilities, and other conditions to develop and use their leisure in ways that enhance their health, independence, and well-being." In essence, leisure becomes the vehicle that leads one to greater physical, social, cognitive, and spiritual fulfillment. The desire to "play" or engage in leisure activities is innate to all humans and if this urge is used properly, the benefits are tremendous.

 Therapeutic Recreation is used in a number of clinical and non-clinical settings including: hospitals. Rehabilitation centers, summer camps, nursing homes, centers for independent living, sheltered workshops, community mental health centers, schools, psychiatric facilities, correctional facilities, substance abuse facilities, home heath care agencies, and many more. Therapeutic Recreation helps people with physical disabilities, developmental disabilities, mental illness, older adults with limitations, alcohol and drug users, at-risk youth, and juvenile and adult offenders.

 The practitioners of Therapeutic Recreation are known as Certified Therapeutic Recreation Therapists (CTRS). Their goal is to provide services that utilize leisure activities that diminish or eliminate disabling conditions. These services can include: arts and crafts, animals, sensory stimulation, sports, games, dance, drama, music, community outings, etc. They also provide leisure counseling and leisure education in an effort to help those help themselves. They develop an individualized treatment plan for their client and facilitate a way for them to reach their goal through leisure activities that are fun and important to those being served.  A CTRS might have a stroke victim participate in an arts and crafts group to work on fine motor skills and because this was a former interest of the client. The biggest strides are often made when the client is unaware that they are "working on a goal."  They are having fun and concentrating on the activity. The mind, body, and spirit are working together in harmony which is the perfect recipe for healing and rehabilitation.

 The history and philosophy of Therapeutic Recreation can be traced back as far as 2000 - 1500 BC. The Egyptians described recreation "as a means of treating the sick". The ancient Greeks followed this same philosophy as far back as 420 BC and Socrates, Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle all understood the link between physical status and mental health. Hippocrates even prescribed for his patients to exercise and engage in leisure activities as a way to recover from sickness. It was perhaps, Plato, who said it best when he said, "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." As western medicine advanced, the use of Therapeutic Recreation diminished, but there were some visionaries who brought it back into the light once again. Dr. William Rush Davis Jr. wrote the first Recreational Therapy text titled "Principles and Practice of Recreational Therapy for the Mentally Ill" in 1936. Florence Nightengale saw the healing power of Therapeutic Recreation and would often provide activities to the sick and injured during the Crimean War which dubbed her the "Mother of Hospital Recreation". Colleges began adding Therapeutic Recreation as a major in the 1950's and in 1981 the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification (NCTRC) was formed. The first national certification exam generating from the NCTRC was administered in 1990.

 From a professional standpoint, the field of Therapeutic Recreation is still in its infancy, but its roots go back thousands of years ago. Therapeutic Recreation is such a powerful discipline because it shares many of the philosophies and practices of similar fields such as: Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Social Services, but is not limited to any of these single fields. Therapeutic Recreation is the embodiment of synergy as is truly more than the sum of its parts. Therapeutic Recreation treats the whole individual from the inside out and doesn't solely concentrate on the improvement of a single body part or the reduction of a single behavior. The delivery of Therapeutic Recreation is designed to recognize and understand the relationship between mind, body, and spirit which yields the best results. Therapeutic Recreation has been shown to improve physical abilities, build confidence, promote greater self-reliance, enrich the quality of life, manage stress, strengthen interpersonal skills, and ease fear just to name a few benefits. More importantly, it fills in the gaps that other disciplines have left out of the treatment process. It is gaining more momentum and more respect world wide every year and remains a vital component to the leisure and health care field.