Lethbridge College offers a two-year diploma program called Therapeutic Recreation-Gerontology. It prepares students to work with seniors and others who use therapeutic recreation services.

Playing games, creating art, dancing, storytelling, gardening, talking with people and educating them on the importance of recreation and leisure activities – these are all the duties recreation therapists get to do while they’re on the clock. 

Therapeutic Recreation is a profession which recognizes leisure, recreation and play as integral components to quality of life. People who may use therapeutic recreation are those with physical, mental, social or emotional limitations, which impact their ability to engage in meaningful leisure experiences.

Recreation therapists work in health-care centres, rehabilitation centres, assisted living facilities, day programs, long-term care facilities and private businesses. They work with patients who are vulnerable.

Examples of vulnerable patients include those who are frail, palliative, lonely, depressed, experience a loss of control and independence, lack a support system, have inadequate boundaries and are susceptible to abuse from others.

One specific therapeutic activity people can partake in is therapeutic riding. Therapeutic riding has a lot of benefits which include, exercising the body and spirit, improving coordination and balance and increasing concentration, motivation and patience. 

Eilish Short, the riding instructor at the Lethbridge Therapeutic Riding Association explains how riding exercises the body and spirit.

“For physical exercise, a horse’s pelvis and a human’s pelvis are actually shaped the same and so somebody who’s in a wheelchair, that exercise of sitting on a horse, actually does the same for the body as if you were walking for an hour.

So, it works out balance, core strength, inner muscle strength, leg strength, all that kind of stuff and then for the spirit, horses, they’re such a good connection and they’re really calming animals.” 

Short also says riding a horse requires a lot of hand-eye coordination and it works out your postural, back and core muscles.

Some other activities utilized in therapeutic recreation sessions are art, music, sports games, video games, board games, dance and movement, gardening, storytelling, creative writing, drama, cooking classes and community and cultural outings. 

According to healthline.com, a recreation therapist tries to include activities a person enjoys into their recreation therapy treatment plan.

Lethbridge College and the University of Lethbridge both offer therapeutic recreation programs. The college’s program is a two-year diploma and the university’s program is a bachelor’s degree. 

Students who start at the college can transfer to the university after they’ve completed their two-year diploma, if they desire to also earn their degree in two additional years.

Rebecca Wiens is a second-year student from the Therapeutic Recreation- Gerontology program at Lethbridge College. Wiens has always had an interest in having a career in the healthcare industry and so far, she has really enjoyed her time at the college.

“I’ve always been interested in working with older adults so that was a big appeal. I always knew that I wanted a career in healthcare and a career helping people. This program just seemed to merge all three of those interests together and I’m in my last semester now and I’ve really enjoyed it.”

After she completes her diploma at the college, Wiens plans on transferring to the University of Lethbridge to complete her degree, which was one of the reasons she chose to study at Lethbridge College.

“It made a lot of sense for me to stay in the same city for four years to complete my education rather than, say, moving between Calgary and Edmonton or something like that. As I learned more about Lethbridge College, it seemed like a really good fit.”

To learn more about the college’s therapeutic recreation program, go to lethbridgecollege.ca.