Recreation Therapy

What is Recreational Therapy?

Recreational therapy utilizes a patient's recreation and leisure interests in their treatment to address physical, cognitive, social, and/or emotional goals. It serves to restore, remediate, and rehabilitate a person's level of functioning to promote increased independence and improve quality of life.

Recreational Therapy Services include:

• Arts and crafts
• Aquatic therapy
• Cards and board games
• Exercise and sports
• Gardening and yardwork
• Outdoor activities
• Community reintegration outings
• Puzzles and other cognitive games
• Video games
• Relaxation and stress management
• Coping skills

How is Recreational Therapy different from other therapies?

While all therapies will focus on the promotion of health and well-being, recreational therapy achieves this through recreation and leisure activities. Your recreational therapist will get to know you and establish an individualized plan and goals, based on your lifestyle and interests. The RT will not only focus on improved functioning, but also enhancing independence and successful involvement in all aspects of life.

What are the benefits of Recreational Therapy?

Purposeful use of recreation can improve a patient's functioning in physical, cognitive, social, and emotional domains. By focusing on these aspects, the patient can improve their overall quality of life.

Who is appropriate for Recreational Therapy?

Individuals of varying ages and abilities are appropriate for RT services while staying in our inpatient rehabilitation unit.

Community Reintegration

A main goal of Recreational Therapy is to help patients return to an active leisure lifestyle; and community reintegration outings are a big part of this. We offer an opportunity for our patients to return to the community to practice their skills in a real world setting. The activities are led by the Recreational Therapist and patients will also be accompanied by Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy staff. Some of our outings include, but are not limited to:

• Department stores
• Grocery stores
• Home evaluations
• Museums
• Bowling alleys
• Restaurants

Recreational Therapy Internship Opportunities

CFV offers recreational therapy internship opportunities in inpatient physical rehabilitation and outpatient aquatic therapy during Spring and Fall semesters. Applications for Spring should be submitted by October 1st and applications for Fall should be submitted by March 1st of their respective application years. For more information and to apply please see CFV Recreational Therapy Internship Manual.

For more information about recreational therapy, please call (910) 615-6066.