Research has demonstrated that learning through play can often be much faster than traditional learning methods, benefiting both adults and children alike. This fact is one of the reasons why recreation therapy—an approach that incorporates recreation and activity-based interventions to enhance an individual’s physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being—can be incredibly healing and motivating for those recovering from a serious injury or illness.
As February is National Recreation Therapy Month, we recently sat down with Margaret Williams, MS, CTRS, one of Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals’ recreation therapists. She helped shed light on her work and how Madonna has embraced the power of recreation therapy.
“Recreation therapists can engage patients in leisure activities that focus on a variety of goals including cognitive function (e.g. memory, attention), speech, upper extremity function, lower extremity function and activity tolerance,” Williams said. “The uniqueness is the fact that many leisure activities engage several or all of these functions simultaneously.”
To that end, Madonna recently invested time and resources into opening a new recreation space and family support area on the Lincoln Campus. It features billiards, shuffleboard, table tennis, air hockey, adaptive bowling, a putting green, yard games, adaptive video games, a LUMOplay system, a craft room, and a family lounge with televisions and computers.
“The idea of this space is to provide fun ways to work on therapy goals, learn about and practice using adaptive equipment and increasing awareness of leisure and resuming leisure,” Williams said. “In addition, it gives families an opportunity to practice leisure participation with loved ones who are adjusting to new bodies and minds.”
The dedicated space has been open for a little over a year now, and Williams noted it’s been rewarding to help her patients participate in leisure activities in which they never thought they would be able to return. In particular, a few patients who benefited from the rec space stood out in her memory.
“Because of the relaxed environment, a patient with aphasia (difficulty speaking) greatly improved his conversational skills,” she said. “Another patient’s husband marveled at the physical and occupational therapy goals his loved one incorporated and improved upon during recreation therapy leisure activities.”