Introduction
Therapeutic Recreation is an activity based method of treatment that is provided by doctors to ease or treat an individual for cognitive, physical and emotional illnesses through physical exercises ( García ‐ Villamisar, Dattilo & Muela, 2017). Some of the current trends and issues that face therapeutic recreation are technological advancement, government legislation, labour market in terms of competition and market prices, compensation or remuneration of employees, competition among other things.
Technological advancement has played an important role in adventure and outdoor recreation in general. This is through increased access to transportation means, communication, and comfort. The use of GPS to locate a place of exercise such as a field has enabled individuals to be active. With the advancement in smartphones, applications have been developed to track on home exercise program (White et al., 2016). YouTube has assisted in providing videos that individuals can learn from while at home to improve on their exposure for example, a person who want to do swimming a s a recreation activity and he or she does not know how to swim may use YouTube tutorials as he or her first exposure to swimming before he or she go swimming.
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Therapist doctors also communicate to different clients to look on the safety of the exercises they are undertaking, this has been doubled by comfort that therapy doctors provide in physical exercise to reduce or eliminate pain, assist with walking to improve on strength and conditioning. New equipment to help in therapeutic recreation have been developed for instance Scripps, sharp and other healthcare systems are currently using robotic equipment and anti-gravity treadmills to assist with ambulation (Reyes-García et al., 2015). Technological advancement has also made the world a global village in that people can easily access recreation facilities all over the world and they can also be able to contact fitness experts all over the world for instructions.
Legislation has also affected the way by which therapeutic recreation is offered, mostly on tax-limiting factors on parks or other recreation facilities, medication to be offered by therapist and the economic situation prevailing. The fee to be paid for use of parks by individuals has of late been increasing this is effected through the prevailing authority (Reyes-García et al., 2015). The burden has made some of the low income earners to not be able to access the facilities of recreation due to the general rise in commodities. This has been coupled by fluctuation of the economic policies employed by the government to reduce inflation as well as deflation.
The policies deployed at times leave the patients with little money for leisure mostly for those individuals located in cities or town. The morale to engage in active recreation is also reduced for low income earners (White et al., 2016). Ethical issues also plays a part in legislation mostly by complying with ethical issues laid such as therapy doctors have an obligation to use their knowledge, abilities, skills and personal judgement to help their client from possible harm. The government legislations also require all the therapists included in recreation therapy to be qualified (Zanon et al., 2014). This is because the government has a right to protect its citizens and if the government does not regulate the qualifications of this therapist, it means that the citizens who seek recreation therapy will be exposed to health danger.
Labour market may also affect therapeutic recreation in the sense that availability and new laws of employment and new employment policies have affected how therapeutic recreation is offered to individuals (Zanon et al., 2014). Implementation of various laws such as eligibility of individuals for unemployment benefits only if they are registered, are actively seeking work or have been working for a specified period limit the number of those who will be eligible for retirement benefits. Those Individuals who are not within the specified bracket of unemployment will have to look for their own ways to enjoy after retirement benefits and if they are unable to secure some of these resources they might end up in dire consequence of not having recreation therapy when needed. Labour market programs such as those developed to assist individuals retain their jobs helps to reduce mental problem and the consequential illnesses associated with psychological effects such as stress and depression ( García ‐ Villamisar et al., 2016 ). This enables employees to be active physically and hence reduced cases of diagnosis which requires a therapist.
Availability of job opportunities in the labour market has also an impact on therapeutic recreation in that when there are job opportunities in the labour market, it means most people will be employed and therefore they will have the resources to access therapeutic recreation. On the other hand, if the labour market does not offer enough job opportunities, it means that most individuals will remain unemployment which means they will not have enough money to use for therapeutic recreation and hence they opt for other treatment methods for example medication. Compensation for individuals at their old age of retirement has enabled families to have leisure time and resources to take care of the same without fear of reduced resources in the family and as well benefit from community-based therapeutic and sports ( García ‐ Villamisar et al., 2016 ). The compensation model in therapeutic recreation reduces chances of individuals’ drugs addiction, video addiction, social media addiction or engaging in illegal activities.
Compensation of working members of the family in terms of remuneration as a reward for their services in the companies or firms they work for. Adequate compensation enables families to have surplus for recreation therapy in case one of the members of the family is sick and need therapy in form of recreation activities. The government is responsible for adequate and equitable compensation of workers in the country in that it champions for works in the country so that they are not oppressed by employees. Inadequate compensation may hinder advanced recreation therapy like visiting the gym by some people (Reyes-García et al., 2015). This is because some of the people most of the money will be used to sustain oneself and the family in the sense of food provision, clothing and provision of adequate shelter. This means that the family will have no savings in case one of its members needs recreation therapy.
Competition by firms offering therapeutic recreation may focus on direct rather than indirect competition attention to task and associated enjoyment can be promoted to eliminate negative emotion of firms offering same services but at different localities or at different rates. With the world becoming a global village due to advancement in technology, this means that the small firms that offer recreation therapy face competition even from global firms outside the country. This will have a negative impact on the local industry because it will see them try to keep up with the standards of international firms which are very expensive. Competitions has also seen a lot of unethical practices being employed in the therapeutic industry as each firm tries to bring down its competitors. Competition in some instances can help the recreation therapy grow in that when recreation firms compete in the bid to bring each other down, they end up improving their services. For example, if there are new exercising facilities in the market, competing firms will tend to scramble for these new facilities in a bid to take customers away from their competitors. This will result in bringing these new facilities to the customer’s access which means there are able to access improved services.
Recreation therapy is also highly influenced by cultural values and art of the society. It means that different communities may have different recreation activities and in one community they may value some recreation activities more than others. The fact that culture highly influence recreation therapy has influenced children participation in certain recreation activities as they may refer them as a taboo in the society and also some communities may not want their children to be involved in certain recreation activities as they consider it risky and hence they shun their children from getting involved in them (Reyes-García et al., 2015). People’s perception on the ability of recreation therapy in helping in the recovery process may also differ from one community to another and hence this maybe one of the factors affecting recreation therapy. Some communities or people may have a negative attitude towards recreation activities and these may affect their participation or even recommending it to a person who may need it.
Some ailments are critical and the doctors may shun individuals from getting involved in any recreation activity and hence this may affect an individual physical fitness and hence this may affect quick recovery of individuals. Recreation therapy helps individuals anger recover fast from their ailments and hence some doctor may see it as some of the requirements for an individual healing full while some may fail to recommend it because they are either not willing to expose their patients into danger or more complications in the process.
References
García ‐ Villamisar, D., Dattilo, J., & Muela, C. (2017). Effects of therapeutic recreation on adults with ASD and ID: a preliminary randomized control trial. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research , 61 (4), 325-340. Analysis , 8 (3), 261-268.
Reyes-García, V., Menendez-Baceta, G., Aceituno-Mata, L., Acosta-Naranjo, R., Calvet-Mir, L., Domínguez, P., ... & Rodríguez-Franco, R. (2015). From famine foods to delicatessen: Interpreting trends in the use of wild edible plants through cultural ecosystem services. Ecological Economics, 120, 303-311.
White, E. M., Bowker, J. M., Askew, A. E., Langner, L. L., Arnold, J. R., & English, D. B. (2016). Federal outdoor recreation trends: effects on economic opportunities . US Department of Agriculture, Pacific Northwest Research Station.
Zanon, D., Hall, J., Lockstone-Binney, L., & Weber, D. (2014). Development of a whole agency approach to market segmentation in parks. Journal of Leisure Research , 46 (5), 563.
