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