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.