Recreational Therapy
Recreational therapy empowers patients to make good life decisions and develop healthy coping skills for stressors.
What is recreational therapy?
Through play facilitated by a board-certified therapist, recreational therapy teaches patients to cope with depression, anxiety, and stress. Patients learn to make healthy choices about how to use their free time, resources, and productivity. This helps patients develop the skills to function independently.
Recreational therapy can include:
Exercise
Games
Gardening
Leisure activities
How does recreational therapy benefit your patients?
Recreational therapy is an excellent complement to the creative arts therapies also included in the CARTSS patient care package.
Whereas art and movement therapy address the root cause of patient suffering, recreational therapy helps patients to develop new, healthy habits.
As a particularly enjoyable form of therapy, recreational therapy encourages patients to invest more deeply in their mental health and to form positive associations with their health care providers.
Recreational therapy has been shown to benefit patients of all ages experiencing:
Recreational therapy has also been shown to improve self-esteem, cognitive functions, and physical fitness.
Elevated Care
When you contract with CARTSS for recreational therapy, you get the full spectrum of creative arts therapy along with the bargain. The CARTSS therapeutic model takes a holistic approach, using creativity to heal the full person rather than just treating the symptoms.
With our patient care package, a regular rotation of experienced, board-certified creative arts therapists will join your on-going, interdisciplinary patient care team. Along with arts, dance, and music therapy, your patients can rely on regular recreational therapy sessions.
Our therapeutic model is uniquely suited to treating a broad range of patients. The traditional model of a single, in-house recreational therapist limits patient care to that individual therapist’s specialization. Unfortunately, a single specialization is rarely effective with every single patient. But with the regular rotation of CARTSS therapists, it’s more likely that all patients will have access to treatments and providers that resonate with them.
Experienced, Board-Certified Recreational Therapists
Our board-certified recreational therapists have years of experience leading group and individual therapy.
Skilled Group Therapy for People Experiencing a Wide Range of Mental Health Conditions
CARTSS therapists are adept at providing compassionate therapy for groups that may include people suffering from eating disorders or substance withdrawal, patients experiencing acute symptoms from mood disorders, or even active psychosis.
Though such a group dynamic can be (understandably) overwhelming even for seasoned medical professionals, our therapists excel at providing a safe, enjoyable, and empathetic treatment environment for all patients.
How does CARTSS benefit your hospital, clinic, or treatment facility?
CARTSS brings stable, quality care.
The traditional, in-house recreational therapist role is infamous for how often it’s eliminated. It’s one of the first to go whenever patient census is down or budget cuts are necessary. It also has a notoriously high turnover rate, as the pressures of the job often lead to burnout.
Short-staffed, the frequency of group therapy usually drops off or ceases altogether. The lack of regular treatment can lead to disruptive patient behavior and even greater pressure on your hospital or clinic staff.
While creative arts and leisure specialists might volunteer their time, they will struggle to lead effective sessions when confronted with groups of people with severe mental health struggles.
CARTSS provides a much better alternative.
Partnering with CARTSS will significantly reduce patient behavioral problems and demands on your staff.
CARTSS brings stability that eases job pressure & cuts onboarding costs.
Since CARTSS’ providers are all board-certified creative arts therapists, they have the education and experience necessary to provide effective group therapy via their creative arts specializations.
And, you’ll no longer find yourself in a constant cycle of recruiting, training, and rehiring for the in-house recreational therapist role.
Everyone from your patients to your orderlies to your HR department will benefit from this consistent, high-quality, reliable care.
Reliable care no matter what.
The stability we provide is why it’s not uncommon for our contracts to be renewed for more than a decade. We have one that’s been active for 27 years! Hospitals save significant sums when they can drop the costs associated with onboarding a new, in-house activity therapist every 2-3 years.
Furthermore, we’re confident in our ability to provide stability even in times of crisis. For instance, CARTSS maintained a 99.1% delivery rate throughout the course of the COVID-19 crisis.
Why Partner With CARTSS
For more than 30 years, CARTSS has been supporting patients and hospitals with its unique, highly-effective creative arts therapy treatment model.
We have led more than 80,000 group therapy sessions in 10 different hospital and community organization settings.
Our mission is to provide a dynamic solution for mental health programs so that the restorative nature of the creative arts cultivates stability within individuals and communities. You can learn more about us here.
Contact us
Contact us
Ready to bring effective, stable group therapy to your organization? Please reach out.