Why ARTA Rather Than ATRA

I've thought through my personal position on the ATRA name change to ARTA. I've decided that my position is simple. Recreational therapy is a term people understand. People never have been able to relate to the term therapeutic recreation. All philosophy asside, I think ARTA will serve the profession much better than ATRA has.

Glossary of RT & OT Now Available from IUScholarworks

This is to know announce that my Glossary of Recreation Therapy and Occupational Therapy is now up on IUScholarworks. IUScholarworks is a free service made available by the Indiana University Library.

The address is http://hdl.handle.net/2022/6474

IUScholarworks is the same service that has made the RTV videos avaiable.

I hope faculty will tell their students that the Glossary of RT & OT is now avaiable as at no cost to them. Hopefully, practitioners will let other RTs know that they can now access the Glossary at any time.

I'm really excited to make my Glossary available to anyone who wishes to access it. I am very appreciative that the Indiana University Library is willing to make it available through IUScholarworks.

David R. Austin, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Indiana University

RTI Reminders

A couple of reminders. The ballot for the RTI Board election is due by Wednesday. And the RTI Annual Conference begins Thursday.

Just Posted on ATRA Members' Forum

In response to a post by Norma Stumbo, I just posted the following on ATRA's Members' Forum:

Wow, Norma really gave it all she had in her recent post! While I have great respect for her efforts on behalf of our profession, I found her presentation of the implications of using the expression recreational therapy to be misleading in several respects.

I do believe she largely built “straw men” arguments against RT and then knocked them down. For example, she stated RT implies a medical model approach. This simply is NOT true. The use of the term RT does imply a systematic approach that involves assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. On the other hand the term therapeutic recreation is often construed (especially by OTs and others who oppose us) to mean simply the delivery of recreation services to persons who are disabled.

Another assertion is that RT implies “a strict focus on the client’s deficits and limitations instead of also leveraging the client’s strengths….” Nothing could be further from the truth. RT has always employed a strength-based approach focusing on clients’ strengths and abilities.

A third misrepresentation of RT is that the focus of recreational therapy is only on “functional ability” to the neglect of community reintegration and building social skills, including leisure skills. She even goes so far as to raise whether this will “shut us out of jobs? Out of a future.” Come on! Most would acknowledge that one of the hallmarks of RTs has always been their holistic approach that goes far beyond functional abilities. And employing such scare tactics about people’s jobs is a bit much. I believe that the use of the term therapeutic recreation has slowed down the growth of our profession and that using the term recreational therapy will lead to increased credibility being given to our profession.

The statement that there would be a large financial cost for the name change is simply not true according to what those in ATRA have stated (see Kelly’s post). And I sincerely believe that the thousands who call themselves recreational therapists will join our professional association once they see it as an organization that actually represents them and their profession.

Finally, in the post it was stated that “The overwhelming majority of educators and university administrators support the use of therapeutic recreation” but there is no source cited for this statement. I do not believe it is true. The vast majority of educators I have spoken with FAVOR the name change.

I could go on in discussing what I believe to be other misunderstandings of recreational therapy contained in the post. I would rather ask ATRA members to read the positive posts of nationally prominent leaders such as John Jacobson, Peg Connolly, Thom Skalko, Ray West, and Vicki Scott -- all of whom endorse the name change.

There are many reasons to support the name change to ARTA. If you look back historically you will realize that our wonderful profession has not grown as it should have while we stuck with the TR term -- a term that has not served us well. It is time for change!

Scott Favors ARTA But Will Support Our Association No Matter the Vote

I wanted to share what I think is an excellent post from Vicki Scott, M.S., CTRS, that appeared on the ATRA Members'Forum. Vicki wrote:

There have been many eloquent speakers post their thoughts on the name change to date so I will be brief. Since I started in the field in the 70's I have been a recreational therapist because that was the term that the consumers understood whether they were patients, co-workers on the team, administrators or legislators. The emphasis being on the therapy aspect in returning patients to independence. Therefore I think that our professional association should reflect this name and I would like us to think about taking it even further to become the International Recreational Therapy Association.However the vote turns out I will continue to support our profession by being involved in the organization.

RT Blog Has Had 900 Posts

This post is the 900th post on the RT Blog! I never would have thought that there would be so many posts when I began the RT Blog. Thanks for sending information for the RT Blog and for reading the RT Blog!

Many Support Name Change to ARTA

What do David Austin, Frank Brasile, Peg Connolly, John Jacobson, Dave Park,Danny Pettry, Thom Skalko, Mike Sutherland, and Ray West have in common? These are some of those who have already publicly supported the name change of ATRA to ARTA. I just learned that my long-time friend Vicki Scott supports the name change as well.

It seems to me that there is a strong movement toward the name change to ARTA. Do you agree?

ATRA Leader John Jacobson on Name Change

There was a post from John M. Jacobson on the ATRA Members' Forum that is worth reading. Here is what John said:

I commend the Board of Directors for using this forum for active membership discussion, and for not taking an stand on the issue at this point. The discussion has been great and is bringing me out of retirement, well for the moment.

When this issue first came up many years ago, I remember writing a letter to then ATRA President Thom Skalko urging that the name not be changed, but remain ATRA. I was very wrong.

Alot has happened since then. Thanks to alot of dedicated people in our profession, our profession has really evolved. When I first started practicing, my title was "Rec Specialist", then "Therapeutic Recreation Specialist" in the VA, which soon changed to Recreational Therapist. In my career, I have been heavily involved in working on a national level with APTA, AOTA, CARF, etc. No one can refute that we are now largely known as "recreational therapists", and we practice "recreational therapy". It is a term well understood and known by our important external customers. As others have pointed out, it does not matter which word is first. Just look at the first words for physical, occupational, and speech therapists. What is important is that therapy is next to it.

When a person not affiliated with our profession hears the word "therapeutic" it brings to mind the definition "...is good, helpful, healthful". It is a vague word meant to be that way. A dog can be therapeutic. Alot of people not trained or certified can do therapuetic recreation. But "therapy" by definition means "treatment of illness, disability". What we do is therapy. We treat patients or clients whether in a facility or in the community.

I understand it is often difficult to make changes. Our professional organization has been "ATRA" for 25 years. But we must make this change, and change our name to the American Recreational Therapy Association to truly reflect who and what we are. I doubt that any costs will be substantial in this day of quick, immediate and easy electronic changes. That should not be a concern. In the long run, it would be pennies worth their weight in gold.

When the vote occurs, I hope all members will take the time to think about the issue, and make an informed vote.

My best to all.

John M. Jacobson

Heather Sedletzeck Sends Good News

From Heather J. Sedletzeck, CTRS, comes this good news:

Hey All,

I was reviewing the newest Indiana First Steps program - Personnel Guide that came out in August and noted that Recreational Therapy is now a listed service in the manual! yahoo!!!! It wasn't in there prior to this update so something we have done has been right! I have 5 staff (including myself) certified at this point with more to come. I hear that my competitors who do home based therapy in the state are certifying their staff as well. This is a GREAT gain for Recreational Therapy in this state and will hopefully lead to increased recognition throughout the country in the area of Early Intervention Practice!

Chalk one up for Indiana! ha ha!

Have a great day!!!

Heather provided this link to a website that provides further information:

http://www.eikids.com/in/matrix/docs/pdfs/Early+Intervention+Personnel+Guide+update+FSCT+809.pdf

Heather J. Sedletzeck, CTRS, President
RT Solutions Inc.

Support for Peg and Ray

I just voiced my personal support on the ATRA Members' Forum for the message provided by Peg Connolly and Ray West. Here is what I posted:

I greatly respect and admire Peg Connolly and Ray West for admitting they made a mistake when initially adopting the use of TR in the name of our association. We have paid dearly for that error over more than 25 years.

As a founding member, past board member, past-president, and Distinguished Fellow of ATRA, I can testify that our profession has suffered for not adopting the use of RT in the name of our professional association. It is time we followed the sage advice of Peg and Ray, as founders and the first presidents of our association, to adopt the name change to ARTA.

David R. Austin
ATRA Founding Member

Connolly & West Support Name Change

Peg Connolly and Ray West have indicated their support of the name change to the American Recreational Therapy Association (ARTA). Here is what they have said:

As the first presidents of ATRA, in 1984-85 and 1985--86, we want to provide members with our shared perspective and support for changing the name of the organization to the American Recreational Therapy Association (ATRA). In 1984 if the group of founders of the organization would not have been concerned about the potential survival of a new professional organization we would have probably chosen the name American Recreational Therapy Association in 1984. This was something we struggled with at the time. We felt it important to truly represent our profession and it should have probably been recreational therapy. But, in hind sight, we did not take the bold action we should have back in 1984. Now, we think it is long overdue that the name of the organization should reflect and promote the goals, mission and priorities of the organization to stakeholders in the industry that employs professionals to provide the services. Which is why we support the change of the organization to the American Recreational Therapy Association.

Since it's inception ATRA has been focused on the promoting and advancing the understanding of the profession in the "education, rehabilitation, habilitation and medical treatment of individuals in need of services (ATRA Membership Recruitment Brochure, 1984). The correct and prevalent term used for the type and focus of the services our professionals provide in health care and human service agencies is recreational therapy. Since promoting and advancing the recreational therapy profession in health care and human service agencies is the primary purpose and priority of ATRA and this is reflected in the mission, vision, values, definition and in the organization's budget priorities and focus we believe the name of the organization should reflect this priority and focus and be changed to the American Recreational Therapy Association (ATRA).

Besides thinking about where we work (which is primarily in health care agencies according to recent research (Riley and Connolly, 2007), the title recreational therapy has been the official title of the profession used not only by the Department of Labor but also as designated in the U.S. Department of Occupational Titles. We believe most professionals working in health care refer to themselves as recreational therapists. We further believe that the stakeholders in the health care and human service industry primarily use and understand the term recreational therapy.

So to enhance understanding and increase support for the recreational therapy profession and the services which competent, qualified and credentialed recreational therapists provide, we believe the name of the national professional association representing us should be consistent and should be changed to ARTA, We feel this name change is in the best business interests of the professional association, the profession and the recreational therapists who provide quality recreational therapy services in health care and human service agencies.

Peg Connolly and Ray West