Therapeutic Recreation

For those individuals admitted to the inpatient rehabilitation unit, the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department offer therapeutic recreation services. Therapeutic Recreation assists to improve function and independence as well as reduce the effects of illness, trauma or disability in the. Through the use of recreation and leisure education and activities, therapeutic recreational therapists are able to affect the persons physical, cognitive, emotional / psychosocial, and spiritual status.

• The recreation therapist will use the patient’s previous recreation and leisure interests as part of their therapy.
  An assessment to learn the patient’s ability to perform these activities is completed. When necessary the recreation therapist will help the patient to learn how to adapt the activity or seek other activities that might give them the same pleasurable experience.
• The recreation therapist also utilizes Leisure education.
  Leisure education helps the patients to look at the importance of recreation as part of a healthy lifestyle and the role it will play in their life upon discharge.
• The recreation therapist uses recreation activities purely for the play experience, to help alleviate stress, pain and boredom, which may be felt during an in-patient hospitalization.
• The community re-entry program allows the patients the opportunity to test the skills they have been working on in their therapy in a community setting of interest— this could include trips to the zoo, grocery store, restaurant, malls, public parks and bowling alleys.

The hope is that the patient will have the skills and confidence to function successfully in the community upon discharge. Community re-entry outings are a fun and yet very functional way to see how the patients as well as the caregivers will do out in the community in a normal situation while still having the safety net of staff in case they have any questions or need assistance.