SHREY INSTITUTE OF NURSING AND ALLIED
SCIENCES
SUB: MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
TOPIC: RECREATION THERAPY
SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:
RECREATIONAL THRAPY
It is a form of activity therapy used in most of the psychiatry settings. Therapeutic recreation can
occur as an informal ping pong and card games, structured soft ball, basket ball, or volley ball,
as trips outside the hospital, attending sports etc. recreation or play activities provides patients
with the opportunity for fun and feeling good. It tends balance to their daily schedule and helps
in treating the whole patient.
Play is also a kind of recreational therapy. Nurses also can use a recreational activity as a
foothold for establishing a therapeutic relationship. It can be scheduled in the morning to help
patients feel better physically as they start their day to give them a sense of accomplishment and
participation. It is beneficial for the hyperactive patients because it channels their energy
constructively within a specific framework.
Recreation therapy provides them useful leisure activities and helps them develop skills
in engaging in healthy, competitive interactions. The chief emphasis of recreation therapy is on
the social re education of the patient, and the basic objective may be described as the restoration
of function, for eg power of attention. Re education is a replacing of bad habits by better habits
or the formation of new habits. The principle of learning by doing is more used in recreation
therapy.
CLASSIFICATION OF RECREATION THERAPIES
The various form of play or activity used in recreation therapy are
1. Motor forms: these can be further divided into fundamental and accessory, based on
whether the motor element is the main purpose of the activity or merely incidental to it.
Among the fundamental forms are such games are hockey and foot ball, while the
accessory forms are exemplified by play activity and dancing.
2. The sensory forms: may be either visual, e.g. looking at motion pictures, play, etc or
auditory, such as listening to a concert.
3. The intellectual forms includes such activities as reading, debating, etc. in recreational
therapy, recreation is regarding he needs every sphere, and the following shows the wide
range in which it is used.
Goal games, eg hide and seek,
Team games, hockey and foot ball
Country sports, shooting and fishing
Combats eg wrestling or boxing
Curiosity play cross word puzzles
Creativity play eg play –acting
Vicarious play eg viewing at motion pictures
Imitative play eg follow the leader in folk dancing
Social play eg party games
Aesthetic play eg painting and clay moulding
Acquisition play eg collecting antiquas or stamps
Aims of recreation therapy
To train memory and concentration
To re educate mentally, physically and socially
To give a sense of responsibility eg by giving one opportunity to organize or lead a game
To stimulate interest
To stimulate or recreate self confidence
To arouse and develop attention
To give one opportunity for self expression
To replace unhealthy trends by healthy ones
To substitute encouragement for discouragement
To improve the appetite
To improve the circulation
To improve respiration
To strengthen the tone of the muscles
To develop a sense of rhythm
To develop a good posture
Recreation therapy may also use community resources to help patients identify socialization
activities that they can become involved with after discharge from the hospital. Movement or
dance therapy is a specific example of how the body can be used as a medium for change since
body and mind cannot be separated, through dance, nurses toward integrating the muscular and
cognitive expression of the patients feelings and thoughts.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kaplan HI, Sadock BJ. Synopsis, of Psychiatry, Behavioral Sciences/ Clinical
Psychiatry. 9th ed. Hong Kong: William and Wilkinson Publishers; 1998.
Dr. Bimla K. Text Book of, Psychiatric Nursing vol. II. 1st ed. New Delhi: Kumar
Publishing House; 2006
Sreevani R. A Guide to Mental, Health and Psychiatric Nursing .New Delhi:
Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers;2006
