Recreational Therapy’s Roles in Creating Therapeutic Environments for Older Adults

Abstract

The purpose of this interpretive paper is to provide an overview of recreational therapy and describe environmental strategies for using recreational therapy to treat problems and meet the needs of older adults. Table 1 provided a composite case scenario, highlighting how gardening lifted depression, illustrating the purpose. In addition, the paper provided an overview of recreational therapy, described therapeutic environments, made a connection between health care and architecture, and demonstrated how environmental theory drives practice in geriatric recreational therapy. Moreover, table 2 provided an example of the diverse professional groups that comprise a therapeutic team, drawing attention to the disciplines that presented at the International Conference of Healthcare and Therapeutic Design (ICHTD), which were held January 8th to 9th, 2012, in Tunghai University, Taichung. Furthermore, table 3 pointed out useful recreational therapy resources.