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Programs & Services

Recreation Therapy

Image for the recreation therapy program

Purpose of Recreation Therapy

Recreation therapy supports a patient’s goal to improve their health and quality of life through a variety of recreational activities, including individual and group opportunities.

Therapeutic Recreation Ontario provides this clinical definition:

Therapeutic Recreation is a process that utilizes treatment, education and recreation participation to enable persons with physical, cognitive, emotional or social limitations to acquire and maintain the skills, knowledge and behaviours that will allow them to enjoy their leisure optimally, function independently with the least amount of assistance and participate as fully as possible in society. Therapeutic recreation intervention is provided by trained professionals in clinical and community settings.


Goals of Recreation Therapy

  • Promoting social interaction among patients to improve quality of life.
  • Increasing activity tolerance.
  • Cognitive stimulation.
  • Providing opportunities to learn new skills and maintain current level of functioning.
  • Offering leisure education opportunities.
  • Functional interventions.
  • Community resource planning for patients being discharged home.
  • Community involvement opportunities while in hospital (for example, trips to a coffee shop, the Eaton Centre, a park or a grocery store).
  • Opportunities for self-expression.

Successful Recreation Therapy

  • Reduces anxiety and stress.
  • Promotes adjustment to disability and/or hospitalization.
  • Promotes community integration.
  • Reduces depression.
  • Allows the acquisition of knowledge and skills.
  • Minimizes health care costs
  • Prevents decline in health status.
  • Increases independence.
  • Decreases social isolation.
  • Decreases focus on pain and increases focus on control.
  • Reduces hospital stays.
  • Increase motivation to participate with care plan goals.

Recreation Therapy Service Model

The leisure ability model, our recreational therapy service model, has three main domains:

  • Functional interventions to improve functional abilities of patients.
  • Leisure education and counselling to provide services related to increased leisure and self-awareness, improved leisure decision-making, knowledge and utilization of leisure resources.
  • Recreation participation encouraging voluntary involvement in recreation interests and activities.