Therapeutic Recreation

Abstract

Application of the principle of "recreation for all" has led the move ment to areas of service such as programs for the noninstitutionalized ill and handicapped, the hospitalized, the mentally retarded, and the mentally ill. Pio neering on these new frontiers, the recreation worker, a relatively new member of the team in these specialized areas, is called upon for an exceptional degree of professional maturity and staff teamwork. New staff positions being created must be filled by skilled and well-motivated professional personnel. While still in their infancy, specialized recreation services as discussed in this paper are be ginning to develop coherent methodologies and a body of practices which bring not only personal refreshment of the spirit, but therapeutic and educational values as well. Uses of recreation in the treatment of the mentally ill, for example, indicate a recreation therapy which can favorably influence the pre disposition and eradication of symptoms of nonorganic types of mental illness.