Alberta Therapeutic Recreation Association Symposium

The "other ATRA," the Alberta Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA) will hold its 2010 Annual Symposium in Calgary on October 14th - 16th. The Symposium will be held at the Greenwood Inn in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

The old "Hoosier RT" (aka, David Austin) will be the featured speaker for the ATRA conference. Among the topics on the program are the Opening Keynote titled "Traits Recreation Therapists Should Have." Other sessions include "The Health Protection/Health Promotion Model" and "The Health Protection/Health Promotion Model: Implications for Practice."

Additionally, information from my new book Lessons Learned: An Open Letter to Recreational Therapy Students and Practitioners will be presented and reaction panels made up of RTs will react to the contents.

The invitation to speak at the conference provides me with an opportunity to interact with RTs in Canada. I keynoted the Canadian Therapeutic Recreation Association Annual Conference held in Newfoundland a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. The RTs in Canada are excited and enthuiastic about their growing profession -- they reminded me a lot of the early days of our own ATRA.