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Therapeutic recreation defined

This is an excerpt from Therapeutic Recreation Leadership and Programming-2nd Edition by Robin Kunstler,Frances Stavola Daly.

Therapeutic recreation (TR) serves any person who could benefit from TR services. It offers a unique service in fostering better health through both prevention and treatment in a wide range of settings, from health care facilities to community organizations. TR is often viewed as a component of the health care system, and many community-based TR programs are offered by local parks and recreation departments as well. The recreation profession, from which TR developed, has its roots in what can be considered public health according to the American Public Health Association: contributing to “promoting and protecting the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play” (Colman, 2020, p. 43). The public parks and recreation system is increasingly fulfilling a role in the community as a public health advocate, educator, and practitioner by providing programming that promotes healthy behaviors, reduces disease risk, fosters human connections, and increases access to recreation for all.

While the healthcare system focuses on treating people who are sick, the public health field focuses efforts on preventing people from getting sick, ill or injured in the first place, while simultaneously encouraging healthy behaviors and driving equitable access to factors that influence health outcomes and well-being. (p. 43)

Who better than a TR professional to contribute to this mission in all settings in addition to fulfilling the mandate to provide treatment?

Essential to understanding this perspective is an explanation of our position on the use of the terms therapeutic recreation and recreational therapy or recreation therapy (RT). Austin (2017) has summarized the distinctions between the two services as follows: TR is a profession that facilitates leisure experiences for individuals who can benefit from or require the assistance of a professional, and RT uses recreation to achieve health, with both pursuits deserving recognition as equally worthy. “Recreational therapy has the potential to not only provide services within the hospital environment, but also to integrate prevention and treatment-oriented services directly into the community” (Snethen & Mitchell, 2019, p. 442). We believe that the Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (CTRS) is the practitioner best equipped to provide both services. If not, the field is at risk of being practiced by those without either the necessary therapeutic skills (recreation specialists) or a grounding in the meaning of the profound experiences of recreation and leisure (occupational therapists, activity leaders, creative arts therapists). Without articulating a philosophical foundation rooted in the meanings of recreation and leisure, and the methods and interventions of the therapist, the unique contribution and value of TR may not be recognized. Aligning TR with the other rehabilitation therapies in a challenging economic climate makes TR vulnerable to being incorporated as a set of activities other disciplines can use in their practice. As RT gains recognition as a treatment reimbursable by third-party payers, such as health insurance companies and government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, demand for RT will increase. Both the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification (NCTRC), the national credentialing body, and the American Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA), the national professional organization in the United States, have stated that TR is the field and RT is the practice. For these reasons, we follow the lead of ATRA and refer to the field as TR. Because many practitioners refer to their departments and services as TR, and some refer to them as RT, we use TR/RT to refer to service provision. We believe that the CTRS is also the most qualified practitioner to provide the services of leisure education, inclusive recreation, and treatment services. An NCTRC job analysis showed that individuals with the CTRS credential can competently deliver this range of services without compromising what Robertson and Long (2020) called our “core ingredients” (p. 4). “Although not required in every state or community, inclusion specialists who hold national certification as a CTRS are highly desired as employees in community agencies” (Jordan & Ramsing, 2017, p. 5). A practitioner in our field is often referred to as a therapeutic recreation specialist (TRS) or a recreational therapist (RT). The RT title is reserved for practitioners who hold the CTRS credential. CTRS is not a job title. In this book we use TRS/RT to denote individuals who practice TR/RT because job titles and descriptions of services are not yet uniform or consistent in the field and, as stated previously, not all TR services are clinical RT, nor do all professionals agree with the distinctions.

Similarly to the United States, in Canada there is great variability in qualifications for TRS/RTs, who work alongside other professionals who require master’s degrees to practice. “The lack of consistency in educational requirements continues to be a major barrier to the understanding and advancement of our profession” (CTRA, 2022, p. 27). The Canadian Therapeutic Recreation Association (CTRA), the national professional organization that serves communities across Canada, endorses the CTRS credential for its members and strongly supports consistency in educational requirements and role clarification for the two levels of TR/RT personnel in Canada, RT and RT assistant.

More Excerpts From Therapeutic Recreation Leadership and Programming-2nd Edition

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