Time for Profession to Adopt RT Term!
In the book, Conceptual Foundations for Therapeutic Recreation published by Venture Publishing in 2002, I wrote the following:
"The time has come to restructure the system of education based on a clear definition of the therapeutic recreation profession. This reform needs to rest on boundaries that distinguish special and inclusive recreation from therapeutic recreation. It may also be time to adopt the term recreation therapy to more clearly represent the clinical approach that uses recreation as an intervention and follows the systematic process of assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. If therapeutic recreation curricula do not take this step, therapeutic recreation will remain "lost in familiar places" (Dumas, 1994), and doomed to the long tradition of basing curricula on a definition lacking clear boundaries" (p. 210).
We need a clear demarcation between inclusive recreation (i.e., provision of normal recreation services for persons with disabilities) and recreation therapy (i.e., using interventions to bring about higher levels of health and wellness). A definitive separation between inclusive recreation and RT can lead to advances for both. In my chapter in Conceptual Foundations for Therapeutic Recreation I elaborate on this position of making a clear separation between inclusive recreation and recreation therapy in order to have a foundation for curricula.
Obviously, what we call ourselves makes a difference beyond university curricular concerns. Employing the term recreation therapy would make a large difference in clearly defining ourselves to others -- who today are confused as to whether we are recreators or therapists.
With this post, I would like to raise the issue as to whether it is now time to drop the term therapeutic recreation and adopt the term recreation theapy. In doing research on the history of ATRA I was surprised to learn that several nationally prominent leaders have stated that they believe ATRA made a mistake in not becoming ARTA in 1984. Does our profession wish to compound that mistake by not correcting it now?
"The time has come to restructure the system of education based on a clear definition of the therapeutic recreation profession. This reform needs to rest on boundaries that distinguish special and inclusive recreation from therapeutic recreation. It may also be time to adopt the term recreation therapy to more clearly represent the clinical approach that uses recreation as an intervention and follows the systematic process of assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. If therapeutic recreation curricula do not take this step, therapeutic recreation will remain "lost in familiar places" (Dumas, 1994), and doomed to the long tradition of basing curricula on a definition lacking clear boundaries" (p. 210).
We need a clear demarcation between inclusive recreation (i.e., provision of normal recreation services for persons with disabilities) and recreation therapy (i.e., using interventions to bring about higher levels of health and wellness). A definitive separation between inclusive recreation and RT can lead to advances for both. In my chapter in Conceptual Foundations for Therapeutic Recreation I elaborate on this position of making a clear separation between inclusive recreation and recreation therapy in order to have a foundation for curricula.
Obviously, what we call ourselves makes a difference beyond university curricular concerns. Employing the term recreation therapy would make a large difference in clearly defining ourselves to others -- who today are confused as to whether we are recreators or therapists.
With this post, I would like to raise the issue as to whether it is now time to drop the term therapeutic recreation and adopt the term recreation theapy. In doing research on the history of ATRA I was surprised to learn that several nationally prominent leaders have stated that they believe ATRA made a mistake in not becoming ARTA in 1984. Does our profession wish to compound that mistake by not correcting it now?
posted by Hoosier RT | 1:31 PM
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