At San Jose Behavioral Health, our Activity/Recreation Therapy Program is designed to promote patient recovery, resiliency, and independence.
Treatment Goals
Our therapeutic activities are designed to promote the following:
- Improve leisure skills/stimulate interest.
- Provide an outlet for energy release/emotions.
- Improve impulse control/direction following.
- Develop/improve peer interactions/social skills.
- Provide information/referrals on leisure resources.
- Improve reality orientation.
- Improve self-confidence and self-esteem.
Leisure Education
Leisure Education and Therapeutic Recreation are assistive tools we utilize and incorporate into our patient’s daily schedules to enable them to:
1) gain a broader understanding of where, why, how, and with whom they can pursue their leisure interests and experiences.
2) unlearn non-adaptive behaviors and learn more functional responses, i.e.; to develop different modes of leisure behavior which will enable our patients to adapt to the environment to meet their free time needs. (Witt, Campbell &Witt, A Manual of Therapeutic Group Activities for Leisure Education, 1981).
Ex. Leisure coping skills, leisure, and feelings, positive effects of recreation and leisure, leisure philosophy
Leisure Participation
The use of relaxing, interesting, and enjoyable activities to promote our patient’s well-being. Also, leisure participation can be seen as non-obligatory and/or non-work activities which our patients choose to do during their free time, excluding activities that meet biological needs such as eating and sleeping.
Ex. Creative art expression, competitive games, physical activities (two basketball courts, sand volleyball, table tennis, stationary bike and elliptical machines) guided imagery, pet therapy.
Daily Involvement
Each of our patient units receives two Activity/Recreation Therapy groups per day, one group is conducted on their specific unit and one group is conducted off their unit of residency. Ex. Patio, gym, etc.
-Morning Leisure activity groups – all of our patients have the opportunity to participate in structured leisure activities with varying members of our Activity/Recreation Therapy Team.
-Afternoon Physical activity groups – all of our patients have the opportunity to participate in structured physical activities with varying members of our Activity/Recreation Therapy Team.
-Debriefing – after their afternoon activity group, all of our patients have the opportunity to openly discuss, with varying members of our Activity/Recreation Therapy Team, what type of traditional activities they would like to continue throughout their treatment stay as well as participate in post discharge.
The therapeutic goal of the San Jose Behavioral Health Activity/Recreation Therapy Department is to re-instill in our patients that having fun and/or engaging in positive therapeutic leisure/recreation activities can lead to a more positive outlook, healthier lifestyle as well as reality orientation.
