Exploring Recreation Therapy Practices And Training In The United States To Provide Guidelines For The Development Of The Profession In South Africa

Background - Recreation therapy is a fast growing allied health profession, most especially in the United States. Although in South Africa, recreation therapy is at the developmental stages and required strong support to be well established. The need for recreation therapy to provide health-promoting services to marginalized groups in South Africa has prompted this study. This study explored recreation therapy practices, development and experiences in the United States to guide the implementation of recreation therapy services and establish the profession in South Africa. Method - An explorative qualitative research approach was used. Twelve people were purposefully selected to participate in the study due to their involvement as academics, registered therapeutic recreation practitioners and board members of professional bodies. Unstructured face-to-face interviews were conducted with participants on recreation therapy as a profession in the United States. Discussions were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using Atlas.ti7 in order to extract themes. Results - The result from the analysis revealed that despite an urgent necessity in establishing the recreation therapy as a profession in South Africa, the correct name for the profession should be provided to be aligned with other allied health professions such as occupational therapy and physical therapy. Education and training is informed by the American Therapeutic Recreation Association’s standards of practice as well as institutions accreditation through Committee on Accreditation of Recreational Therapy Education and the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification’s annual job analyses research. Students are urged to add further value to their knowledge by equipping themselves with additional courses to gain additional skills. Emphasize was placed that the establishment of an academic program should be standardized. Recreation therapy in practice adds value to other health professions and collaboration is required. Good relationships with other professions are thus necessary. Recreation therapy is a specialized area does not just provide recreation programs to the disabled but taking a client through the motions of learning to reskill in adaptive recreation activities and once mastered to reintegrate into the community. The needs of the client and their families should be taken into consideration and programs should be developed with specific goals in mind. Practice settings are community or clinical based and is different in practice. However, there should not be differentiation as both should apply the basic principles of the recreation therapy process and document it. The challenge lies with community therapists not reporting on their work to make it evidence-based. Different models of the profession exist globally. The model followed by the United States, professional degree program, internship and certification exam, is not followed by all and not suitable based on cultural differences. Conclusion - In conclusion, it was evident that recreation therapy profession could be beneficial, considering its roles in the communities and country at large in improving life qualities of people. Although, more work still needed to be done in terms of instituting a curriculum content, ethics and standard of practice, qualified personnel, support and mapping out policy for the establishment of recreation therapy as a profession in South Africa.