Therapeutic Recreation (TR) is an often-misunderstood discipline in rehabilitation. TR involves activities like ski trips, visits to baseball games, or gardening, so people sometimes assume that TR is simply relaxing fun time for patients. However, TR is so much more than that and has a measurable impact on outcomes for brain injury and spinal cord injury patients.
The benefits of therapeutic recreation
Studies have shown1 that the four outstanding outcomes for patients who participate in therapeutic recreation are that they are:
- More likely to live at home after discharge (versus going to a long-term care facility or other type of facility);
- Less likely to develop pressure sores, urinary tract infections or other secondary conditions requiring rehospitalization;
- More likely to return to work or school;
- More integrated and active with their family and community.
Taken together, these outcomes mean that patients who experience TR are more likely to have greater functional independence, less healthcare complications and higher satisfaction with life once they leave the inpatient environment. For the patient and the insurer, this also means lower healthcare costs because they require less caregiver hours and have fewer hospitalizations.
What is Therapeutic Recreation?
Therapeutic Recreation is an activity-based therapy that uses the interests that patients have–the activities that give their lives fullness and meaning–to achieve rehab goals and create a foundation for a full and satisfying life. TR, in collaboration with therapies like physical and speech, can have a profound impact on a patient’s success.
Getting on track to return to your interests is powerful and often emotional for patients. It helps patients realize that their lives as they knew them before their injury aren’t over. TR can help patients:
- Discover or rediscover a passion, like cycling, painting or swimming;
- Find ways to stay healthy and active post-injury;
- Determine ways to stay integrated with family, friends, and their community;
- Understand that they are still mobile through various transportation options;
- Overcome the stigma that they might face in their community or from within themselves;
- Engage in meaningful activities that improve physical fitness, help combat depression and improve overall quality of life.
TR also translates the skills that they are practicing in other therapies (i.e. wheelchair skills, speech techniques, bowel programs, etc.) to the outside world, bringing together everything they’ve been learning to successfully navigate a baseball game, use a public restroom independently or plan, execute and enjoy a family out to the movies or dinner.
One of the final steps that Recreational Therapists work on is connecting patients to programs and resources in their home communities so that they can continue to stay active and engaged. Returning home to a less adaptive-friendly environment can be intimidating, so Recreational Therapists set up their patients with the right skills, local resources and, when needed, the tools or equipment, so that they can continue to lead the lives they want to live.
Therapeutic Recreation at Craig Hospital
Craig Hospital has recognized the value of TR for decades and has made it a priority for all patients to have access to TR therapies, even though many are not covered by insurance. Craig is one of the few rehabilitation centers to offer therapeutic recreation at the level that Craig does. With 18 therapists on staff, we have one of the largest teams in the country. Get to know our Therapeutic Recreation team.
By Tom Carr
Director of Therapeutic Recreation
- Claire Cahow, Julie Gassaway, Cecilia Rider, Joan P. Joyce, Andrew Bogenshutz, Kelly Edens, Scott E. D. Kreider, Gale Whiteneck (2012). Relationship of therapeutic recreation inpatient rehabilitation interventions and patient characteristics to outcomes following spinal cord injury: The SCIRehab project. The Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals, Inc. 35(6), 547-564. Doi 10.1179.2045772312Y.0000000066.
