Therapeutic recreation practitioners make judgments and decisions based on guiding principles, extensive knowledge, professional skills, and standards of practice.
Standards are developed to assist therapeutic recreation practitioners to systematically plan, implement, evaluate, and adapt their performance according to these approved guidelines. By utilizing these Standards of Practice for Therapeutic Recreation, therapeutic recreation practitioners will develop supporting data for the efficacy of therapeutic recreation within their settings.
Each therapeutic recreation practitioner is responsible to follow the Standards of Practice for Therapeutic Recreation. Endorsement and adherence to the Standards of Practice for Therapeutic Recreation will result in increased consistency among practitioners, which will lead to higher quality services to clients, and the strengthening of the profession of therapeutic recreation.
There are nine standards contained in the Standards of Practice for Therapeutic Recreation, including:
- Therapeutic Recreation Assessment
- Therapeutic Recreation Intervention Plan
- Therapeutic Recreation Program Development
- Therapeutic Recreation Program Delivery
- Therapeutic Recreation Documentation
- Therapeutic Recreation Evaluation
- Therapeutic Recreation Research
- Therapeutic Recreation Professional Development
- Therapeutic Recreation and Community Practice
The bound document Standards of Practice for Therapeutic Recreation is now available, free of charge to ATRA members and for a small fee ($10.00) for non-members. Please contact us to request a copy.