Empower. Protect. Inform

The World Cup soccer club offers a wonderful program that works with the children's hospital to offer programs about the importance of accepting people for who they are without judging them and without putting them down. This organization has done an especially good job with working with the Therapeutic Recreation Specialist to form several teams that incorporate people with Epilepsy on to their teams. They not only empower this kids by teaching them to play soccer, put helps protect them by offering a safe place for them to do something they love in an environment that is fully equipped to meet their needs. In addition to helping athletes with Epilepsy, World Cup also focuses on training other athletes about this condition and what do if a child may have a seizure. Also, World Cup trains their athletes to look after one another as a team, no matter what may be going on in that child's life at that time. By informing other kids about different conditions, they are training them to be acceptable of people with all abilities.

Normalization

First of all, in order to understand what needs to talk place in our society to help people with spinal cord injuries, we must examine what society deems "normal." Dictionary.com provides eight definitions of normal: "1) conforming, usual, or regular; 2) serving to establish a standard; 3) free from mental disorder, sane," and so on and so on. Each of these definitions gives a guideline for what people would call "normal." What does society say? Many things, but as for laying down a solid definition of normal, it is more of an unwritten rule that people live by. Do people in Hollywood live normally? Do the Amish live normally? Do you? What is normal?

In the briefest of senses, normal can be described by society as somone who is free from physical impairments, cognitive/developmental impairments, somewhat middle class with a job. Without these critical images, you would not be considered normal. People may envy you, or they may scoff at you if you do not have these images all planned out as society says you should. However, there is hope. The definition of normal does not change, but society's expectations do, so if you change society's expectation to include people who would not be considered "normal" by today's definition, then people could live "normal" lives in acceptance of others who may have had some setbacks or struggles in life.

If society encouraged people to reach for the stars, no matter what setback one may have had in life, then entering the job circut or social ring after a life altering injury would not be so difficult. Programs that allow people to help someone with a SCI and play games together, will help mold society's view. Once we stop making an injury about the injury and start making the injury a person with a face, then things change, people change. Support groups and services about disability and making the most out of the situation, like recreational therapy, helps encourage people to move on. Life is going to throw setbacks/trials; it is always different for each person, that is why support groups, like spinalcord.com is set up to give people a great understanding of what they are dealing with and what to do next. SCI's are serious, but if we don't help change society's view of normal, the situation will become more than serious; it could become deadly.

Participant Interview

The person that I interviewed was AJ. He is a six year old boy with Autism, who is one of the smartest kids that I know. As I was interviewing him and his parents, I learned a great deal about just how smart he is, considering that he started reading at 41/2 and started recognizing letters, numbers and patterns at 31/2.

One of the concepts that really jumped out at me during the interview was when his mom told me that they started noticing symptoms of Autism at a very young age, but he wasn't diagnosed until he was 20 months. The amazing thing is that his parents started therapy right away, and by 26 months, he was seeing an Occupational Therapist and Hippotherapy at just over four years of age. His parents are very supportive of him and only want the best for their child (as do most parents), but what amazed me even more was the fact that they don't let AJ's Autism discourage them in any way. AJ is a very bright kid with great futuristic opportunity because his parents have been pro-active and really helping their child through therapy.

For my service plan, I chose to focus on AJ's goal of better communication, by having him work on answering questions and requesting help when he needs help, instead of just whining. Since, I work with AJ in a therapeutic riding setting, I focused my care plan in that direction. One of the first goals his parents told me they wanted for him in therapeutic riding is that AJ becomes completely comfortable with horses and learns to ride on his own. So, I had this as one goal and focused on better communication for the second goal, with a couple of objectives to help reach this goal.

Professional Interview

For the professional interview, I interviewed Pamela Minunni at the Arizona Department of Veteran Services. She was very kind and extremely busy. It was amazing that we found even five minutes to sit down and talk to her, but those five minutes were well worth it.

"When asked what she enjoys most about her job, Pamela said, “the people, without a doubt.” She loves the ability to make people laugh and smile and help them. Another aspect of her job that she loves is how she gets to not only plan the programs, but see them “played out,” and adjust if the program needs adjusting. As a D1 Recreation Therapist, Minunni’s job was described in four steps: Assessment and care plans of residents, creating effective programs, implement those programs, and designing outings for residents. Along with all the program planning comes the inevitable evaluations, monthly of all programs. Also the residents are evaluated by a team of people working at the facility to establish the best care and assessment plans of each person, what the patient is capable of, their limitations, and what would best benefit them."

My favorite part of the interview was getting the opportunity to see everything that we had discussed in class, in person. Everything she said she does as part of her job, lines up with the NCTRC curriculum and even highlights from the Therapeutic Recreation book. I was absolutely fascinated. The whole experience was wonderful because I got to see all the concepts we have been learning about played out in action.

Resource Awareness

Wow, now that I have started working with people with disabilities, I have been introduced to so many organizations and opportunities that are available to them. I work for the Hunkapi Horse Program, which specializes in working with people with disabilities and Youth At-risk. This is an amazing program because the whole goal and focus of the program is to empower the rider to become as independent as possible. It is amazing to watch a child that can't stay on a horse for five minutes complete a thirty minute session after multiple lessons. The progress from one stage to another is phenomenal to watch.
The web address is www.hunkapi.org.

Also, Hunkapi has the privilege of taking students to compete in the Special Olympics, which is another organization that is solely for people with intellectual disabilities to compete in sports. These are some of the most fascinating sports to watch as one can really sense the pride and sheer fun that participants display. Special Olympics has thousands of participants and is not only nation-wide, but also international. So, in this organization, the opportunities are endless.
I had to do a powerpoint on this organization for a previous class and this video is one that shows a little bit about just how big Special Olympics is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA7ZSnlaZp0.

Tenets of TR Practice

The tenet that I find most valuable is number nine, which states that "the goal of therapeutic recreation (i.e. health) is achieved through purposeful intervention using the TR process (i.e., assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation)." According to Austin and Crawford, "therapeutic recreation involves the knowledge of leisure and recreation as these phenomena relate to achieving optimal health and quality of life." The whole goal of TR is to help people through the TR process, that way this intervention can be documented and carefully evaluated to know if this method is working for that individual. This is a method that I try to use in my job, even though I am not a therapuetic recreation specialist. I feel that it is good to know and understand the people that I work with (assessment), have a plan for how I am going to meet their goals (planning), implement those plans into actions, and finally evaluate if those plans and actions are meeting the specific goals of the participants. Though I may never become a CTRS, I will never practice therapy, but I can use these ideals to give the most to the people that I work with to help them reach that self-actualization point.

Recreation and Tourism Major

As odd as it is to find someone from the RTM major in this PRM class, I work in a therapeutic recreation field, so I thought I'd give this class a try. I have absolutely no idea what I am doing with this whole blogging thing, but I'll learn soon enough.