Specialty Care Mississauga Road recreation therapist Amy Wilkinson sits at the home's Recreation Therapy Awareness Week social booth.
Specialty Care home celebrates Recreation Therapy Awareness Week
Event highlights benefits residents receive from therapeutic programs
Monday March 1, 2010 -- Jennifer Higgs
Specialty Care Mississauga Road celebrated Recreation Therapy Awareness Week Feb. 7-13, providing an opportunity for residents, family, community members, staff members and nursing students to see the impact of recreation therapy in long-term care, says Amy Wilkinson.

Wilkinson, recreation therapist (R/TRO), says the week was a time to recognize and reflect on the recreation staff’s hard work and the benefits residents receive from the therapeutic programs available.

The awareness week is an initiative of Therapeutic Recreation Ontario (TRO), which provides its members a promotional package for the event.

TRO is a provincial professional body that is working towards becoming a regulated health profession (similar to nursing and physiotherapy), says Wilkinson, noting it currently uses a registration application process that provides successful candidates with a R/TRO designation.

Recreation therapists at the Mississauga long-term care home use what’s called the Leisure Ability Model to assist residents to “full recreation participation through addressing functional abilities and providing leisure education,” explains Wilkinson.

She says the most beneficial aspect of hosting the awareness week is the hands-on activities that residents and staff can experience.

The home’s recreation therapy department hosted a 1-4 p.m. showcase Feb. 10 to highlight the social, intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical benefits of recreation programs.

The showcase featured information booths, demonstrations and prizes.

Each booth had an activity, including a snoezelen cart to highlight environmental benefits, Bible trivia for a spiritual component and a game where participants share personal information as a social activity.

The most exciting part of the week was the community involvement, says Wilkinson, as some community organizations participated in the showcase. For example, St. John Ambulance had a booth about its pet- therapy program and brought a pet-therapy dog.

One of the home’s volunteers came with an Olympic torch that her sister, one of the torchbearers, owns.

“That was kind of fun,” says Wilkinson, adding residents had a photo opportunity with the torch.

During the week the recreation therapy team hosted two leisure lunches for staff members and management. One highlighted using the Nintendo Wii system and the other featured learning about bollywood dancing.

The home’s front lobby also had an information display.

The home hosts the recreation therapy event annually. Wilkinson says this year’s event was designed well, with more interactive opportunities for participants.

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