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Community Services15Therapeutic RecreationJean FolkerthRichard PaulsenRobert FrostTherapeutic Recreation is considered an emerging profession in health care settings. Because of theAmericans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the need for persons with degrees in therapeutic recreation toprovide recreation or recreation consultation for persons with disabilities is growing. The two nationalprofessional membership organizations offer similar, but different definitions of therapeutic recreation (TR).According to the National Therapeutic Recreation Society (NTRS) therapeutic recreation is:143Handicapper fishing site with “balconies” for wheelchairs, St. Clair County. (Photo courtesy of Theodore Haskell.)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 usetheir leisure in ways that enhance their health, independence, and well-being (National Therapeutic Recreation Society,1994).The American Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA) offers the following definition of therapeutic recreation:Therapeutic Recreation is the provision of Treatment Services and the provision of Recreation Services to persons withillness or disabling conditions. The primary purpose of Treatment Services, which are often referred to as RecreationTherapy, is to restore, remediate or rehabilitate to improve functioning and independence as well as reduce or eliminatethe effects of illness or disability. The primary purpose of Recreation Services is to provide recreation resources andopportunities in order to improve health and well-being. Therapeutic Recreation is provided by professionals who aretrained and certified, registered or licensed to provide Therapeutic Recreation (American Therapeutic RecreationAssociation, 1987).Within the field, therapeutic recreation is practiced differently dependent on the population, setting, philosophy of theagency and reimbursement. It is expected that therapeutic recreation services are delivered by persons whose minimalqualifications are that the person has a degree in therapeutic recreation and/or is certified by the National Council forTherapeutic Recreation Certification. The person so certified is a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist(CTRS).How the Field Developed in MichiganThe history of therapeutic recreation in the State of Michigan does not reach as far back as most of the other areas ofrecreation service, but in it’s comparatively short lifeline, therapeutic recreation has taken a “fast-track” in emerging as areputable health service provider.Therapeutic recreation’s early roots can be traced to our state institutions for persons with emotional and mentalimpairments. In the late 1940s, state facilities, like Traverse City, Oak-dale, and Kalamazoo Hospitals, began to shift servicesfrom custodial to more active forms of care, including activity programs. After World War II, the Veterans AdministrationHospitals also introduced “medical recreation~~ services aimed at improving the social and emotional adjustment of their newresident clients. In the 1950s, recreation services people appeared in large private psychiatric facilities, like University ofMichigan Hospital and Pine Rest Hospital in Grand Rapids. These early forerunners of therapeutic recreation were calledActivity Therapists. During this decade, the value of recreation services was also recognized in expanded programs within prisonsettings and community centers. The growth of recreation for persons with special needs resulted in the first state conference in1957, the Michigan Activity Therapy Conference.144 Recreation in Michigan: Great Professional OpportunitiesThe 1960s and 1970s were a boom era for therapeutic recreation. The creation of enabling legislation,the “deinstitutionalization” of state facilities, the advent of professional curricula and the foundations ofprofessional organizations all paved the way for the profession of therapeutic recreation to blossom. In 1963,federal legislation created Community Mental Health services. This led directly to the shifting of servicesfrom Michigan’s state hospitals to the providing of community-based services for persons with emotional ormental impairments. These outpatient or day treatment programs featured recreation as a key component oftheir services. Programs and facilities emerged with recreation for special populations as their main focus,including specialty camps like Indian Trails (physical impairments) and Teushmaheta (visual impairments)in West Michigan, being prime examples. In 1968, the Michigan Special Olympics was inaugurated.Accessibility and “least restrictive environment” were legislative concepts that pushed recreation intocommunity settings. In the mid-1970s, the Tri-City Therapeutic Recreation Program was launched. Thisprogram focused on serving the special population community of Wayne, Westland, and Garden City. Thiswas the first of many Michigan communities to provide special recreation programs within the traditionalparks and recreation departments.In 1974, under a federal grant from the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, the first Michiganprofessional therapeutic recreation curriculum was established at Michigan State University. It was aroundthis time that the body of knowledge in therapeutic recreation began to take form in textbooks andprofessional journals, like the Therapeutic Recreation Journal. By the late 1970s, therapeutic recreationhad become an established branch of the main state recreation organization, Michigan Recreation and ParkAssociation (MRPA).As much as the time frame of the 1960s through the 1970s was that of foundation building, the timeframe of the 1980s to the mid-1990s can be characterized as that of creating professional depth anddefinition for therapeutic recreation. Early in the 1980s the National Council for Therapeutic RecreationCertification (NCTRC) assumed responsibility for the certification and recertification of therapeuticrecreation professionals. The research and development of this organization led to the first


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MSU PRR 213 - RecInMichChap15

Course: Prr 213-
Pages: 21
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