The guest speaker in the video is a recreation therapist who works at the Jackson Recreation Center in Miami, Florida. The speaker’s name is Kelly Messett, and she graduated from college in 1997. The Jackson Recreation Center is a state-of-the-art facility where medical professionals help people with different types of injuries. For example, they work with brain trauma and other types of physical injuries, patients who have had a stroke or are in the pre-stroke state and require help to recover, spinal cord injuries, cancer patients, transplant patients, or people who have had COVID. Hence, the population that this recreation serves is diverse and includes people who have had a physical or cognitive impairment due to a disease or injury and need recreational therapy to renew their capabilities. The types of activities that the speaker describes include games such as dominos, which engage a patient’s motor, cognitive, and social skills. Interestingly, Messett describes the different types of skills and abilities that the game of dominos, which is a simple activity, can engage for one patient.
The guest speaker mentioned the Assessment, Planning, Implementation, Evaluation, and Documentation (APEID) process as something that she has been developing over the years of her practice. Hence, she uses a standard procedure and her experience of working with patients to assess their current data, starting with the examination of their chart to ensure that she is familiar with the patient’s current status and precautions before she meets them. Next, Messett chooses the activities that this individual would like to engage in, considering the skills and abilities she wants to target with her intervention. Finally, she assesses their progress and health status routinely to track progress and notice any changes. Generally, Messett describes her job responsibilities as taking care of the 75 patients that are in the center. In general, she prints out charts and completes chart reviews assessments, observes the patient, collects data on the patient’s current status, and creates changes to the treatment plan.
When exploring the links under the Resources tab, I learned that there are several recreational agencies that offer services similar to those at Jackson Recreation Center. For example, activities identical to those described by Messett are performed at the Recreational Therapy at Craig Hospital and Recreational Therapy at Shepherd Center (“Therapeutic recreation,” n.d.; “Recreation therapy,” n.d.). These two facilities also offer services for a diverse population of patients who have had physical injuries, such as spinal cord damage, and engage patients in sports or other types of recreational therapies.
My personal takeaway from this interview with a recreational therapy specialist is that this profession is an excellent opportunity to help people recover from their diseases or injuries. For example, Messett mentioned that they had had many COVID-19 patients in their facility recently who have had different impairments after this disease, such as heart issues or lung failure that they need to recover from. My skills and interest make me suitable for the profession of a recreational therapist because I am an outgoing person interested in sports. Hence, I can engage my communication skills together with my understanding of diseases’ physical and cognitive injuries to help patients find activities that they enjoy and that they can use to restore their capabilities. Overall, this paper summarizes the interview of the CTRS worker and provides a reflection on the personal interests and abilities.
References
Recreation therapy. (n.d.). Web.
Therapeutic recreation. (n.d.). Web.