David Austin's New Book!

I think all practicing Recreational Therapists should read Dr. David Austin’s new 7^th edition of, Therapeutic Recreation Processes and Techniques.

It feels like I was just reading the 6^th edition yesterday. Knowledge (like technology evolves). A practitioner probably would not want to use a 1982 computer. They probably would not want to be using the 1982 first edition of this book as a basis for their RT practice either. They would want the most updated information and this book offers that.

Naturally, current students in Therapeutic Recreation or Recreational Therapy degree programs will be reading this book. However, we, practitioners may not be reading this book and I think we need to.

The 7^th edition’s subtitle is: “Evidenced-BasedRecreational Therapy.” This is a very important trend in health care services. Third-parties want to know there is evidenced that interventions bring about outcomes. They do not like to pay for services that do not show outcomes. Good news, we have research that supports evidenced based outcomes in Recreational Therapy. I think we need more, but we do have some.

The 7^th edition also offers more information on Positive Psychology. I think we, Recreational Therapists are primarily practicing positive psychology. This is based on my experiences working as a Recreational Therapist for 11 years in a residential treatment programs for children and adolescents with various mental health needs. While many clinicians are addressing mental health problems. We, RTs are working on the strengths and client/ patient is having fun doing it. Dr. Austin provides information on some of  my favorite authors on positive psychology, including: Seligman, Csikszentmihalyi, and Fredickson. Another one who is not included, but one of my favorites is Marci Shimoff, author of Happy for No Reason.

This book is written in a way that is easy to read. It includes many interested chapters, including: facilitation techniques, the recreational therapy (APIE) process, helping others, communication skills, being a leader, specific leadership tasks and concerns, clinical supervision, and health and safety considerations.

My favorite chapter is the Facilitation Techniques. It provides a nice introduction to many interventions, including: aromatherapy, stress management/ relaxation, social skills training, physical activity, aquatic therapy, and others.

Note:

I was a little upset with Sagamore Publishing because they no longer send me advanced review copies for my self-study CEU business. In the past, they have sent me copies at my request, which I paid for in full. They have decided to only send these copies to colleges and universities at this time.