For my recreation therapist readers, we all know the question that comes after introducing ourselves to new people. We’re going to have to explain what we do. While a lot of people may think this would be hard, most of us tend to love it. It gives us the chance to advocate for our work, and most of us LOVE what we do, so talking and advocating for what we do isn’t the worst thing in the world.

With all of that said, I wanted to use this series to again, advocate for what recreation therapists. You see, most people assume that because I work in an assisted living and retirement home that mental health isn’t something I need to worry about. That I’d only need to worry about it if I worked in a hospital. That’s not true though.

As Recreation Therapists one of our focuses is improving and maintaining an individuals wellbeing. Wellbeing is broken up into multiple different categories including physical, spiritual, social and psychological/emotional. This means that mental health and the topic of mental wellbeing is constantly on our minds.

When it comes to fostering a positive mental wellbeing and health, recreation therapy provides a strong foundation along with tools and resources that can help individuals. Incorporating TR into treatment plans and just overall support can have great benefits.

Improve Social Skills

For individuals dealing with mental health issues, having a support system is incredibly important. Even for this who don’t presently have any mental health concerns, having a support system can be a component in supporting the prevent of one. Having individuals in your life who you can trust and open up to is crucial in supporting a persons’ wellbeing.

By using recreation and leisure interventions, a recreation therapist can help enhance a person’s social skills allowing them to strengthen their relationships and build new ones. These interventions can teach and strengthen skills that are associated with socialization such as communication, teamwork, trust, listening, personal space, cooperation, manners and eye contact.

Provide Coping Mechanisms

Recreation therapy is an educational field on top of a therapeutic one. The role of a recreation therapist is to provide the tools and resources so that individuals can become independent and take part in recreation and leisure activities on their own.

Recreation therapy can provide support in helping individuals find and build on strategies that can both support mental wellbeing and help individuals cope with anxiety, stress, depression and other mental health conditions. In the process, interventions can also assist individuals in ensuring they are picking positive coping mechanisms that won’t cause them harm and transition old coping mechanism that may not be healthy. This is one of the many roles a recreation therapist would play in helping support someone with an addiction.

Provide a Meaning for Life

Everyone want to feel like their life has meaning, that they have a purpose. There are a variety of different situations that can cause a person to feel lost or confused on what their meaning of life really is. Through recreation activities though, a person has the potential to find both a meaning and purpose for their life.

One of the many types of recreation activities that a recreation therapist might introduce to someone struggling with finding a meaning for their life is virtuous leisure. This form of leisure allows someone to find a way to give back and feel like they have a great sense of purpose in the world. If you’re interested in finding out more about this, you can read one of my previous posts found here.

Improve Mood

Recreation and leisure activities have been proven by research to help boost an individual’s mood and increase their level of satisfaction/happiness. A Recreation Therapist has the skills to introduce and guide someone to finding activities that bring them a sense of happiness, lifting their overall satisfaction for life. They also have the tools and resources to help teach them the skills they need to fully participate in these types of activities. By doing this, recreation therapy can not only help someone find an activity that improves their mood but also give them the resources they need to do the activity on their own.

One of the many ways that a recreation therapist can help an individual find happiness, is by helping them find an activity that sparks flow. If you’re interesting in learning more about Flow, I highly recommend checking out Grow Through Flows post here. You can also find a great visual that she created about it here.

Boost Confidence

Self love is an important factor in mental wellbeing, and self confidence can help contribute to a person’s ability to love themself. Recreation therapy can help guide people in finding and/or learning skills that allow them to feel confident in themselves.

A strength-based approach is one of the many ways that a recreation therapist can help an individual gain confidence. A strength-based approach focuses on how a person wants their life to look and what skills they already possess or need to in order to reach that goal. This approach boosts confidence by empowering an individual to take control of their own well-being and focusing on what is possible in their life.

Reduce Isolation

Isolation plays a huge factor in mental wellness. For individuals who are experiencing a mental illness, they often try to isolate themselves by reducing interactions with other people. Recreation therapy can provide interventions that help support individuals with their mental wellness while integrating them back into different group settings, fighting against the need isolation.

Isolation in itself can also cause negative impacts on mental wellbeing. Individuals who don’t have a large support system or a foundation to socialize can experience isolations which can be a cause for the mental illness itself. This can often be seen in individuals who move into a retirement or long term care home and even university students. Recreation therapy can intervene, providing programs that encourage socialization, helping to create friendships and decreasing the chance that an individual will feel isolated or alone.

Promote Community Integration

Community integration and involvement can be key to helping an individual deal with isolation. Recreation therapy can help teach and provide tools and resources that allow and support an individual to get out in their community. These tools and resources can include many of the same supports as above, but can also look at physical things as well. For example, helping an individual understand and work with their local transit system so that they are able to take part in activities on their own outside of the therapy sessions or after discharge. By being able to take part in local activities, a person can work on becoming more independent and allowing them to feel more in control of their life.

A recreation therapist can also help support an individual in learning an activity that they are interested in doing with their family or friends, that they may not know already. For example, if an individual has a goal of being able to ride a bike in their neighbourhood. A recreation therapist can take steps to help teach them how to ride a bike, while slowly increasing their independence and allowing them to reach their goal of being able to get out into their community.

Recreation therapy and mental health go hand in hand. No matter the individual and no matter what they may be dealing with, recreation and leisure is a tool that everyone deserves to have access to.

Did I miss any major ones? Comment below!