RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: In 2002, the University of Southern Mississippi's Therapeutic Recreation Program and the Hattiesburg (MS) Public School District's Department of Exceptional Children and Health Services formed a partnership that has lasted (off and on) for 15 years. METHODS: The partnership was formed based on a shared mission of education and training, and grew in depth based on reciprocated respect and support. RESULTS: Early collaborative efforts included simple programming efforts that provided health and educational benefits for the students with disabilities in the public schools and training for the future professionals in therapeutic recreation at the university. As the program progressed, more complex programs were designed to teach students with disabilities to build the capacity for pursuing and maintaining personal health. CONCLUSIONS: Planned programming efforts for the near future focus on collecting data to support the development of an extracurricular athletic program for students with disabilities.
Asunto(s)
Conducta Cooperativa , Personas con Discapacidad , Juego e Implementos de Juego , Terapia Recreativa , Instituciones Académicas , Adolescente , Niño , Preescolar , Participación de la Comunidad , Investigación Participativa Basada en la Comunidad , Humanos , Mississippi , Terapia Recreativa/legislación & jurisprudencia , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
This article offers a glimpse into the lives and activities of some of the patients, volunteers and staff in the Saskatchewan mental health system during the period of deinstitutionalization. Drawing on her own experience as a patient in psychiatric wards as well as ongoing research in the history of mental health, it features the role of Regina Volunteer Visitors in Saskatchewan Hospital, Weyburn and examines the importance of occupational and recreational therapies and activities in improving the lives of the patients in that institution. It emphasizes the perspectives of patients and volunteers who actively worked to develop recreational activities, with the intention of helping individuals connect with the surrounding communities. The views and perspectives presented here are drawn from a variety of historical and oral interview sources, including views from visitors to the asylum and patients who lived within its walls. The author has also been a consumer of mental health services, and spent time in the Provincial Mental Hospital in North Battleford. The article therefore makes an important contribution to enhancing our understanding of the social history of deinstitutionalization, not only for its unique source base, but also because those sources have been examined and explained to readers through the perspectives of a former patient herself. This article draws significant attention to the changing opportunities for patients as they interacted with the women's volunteer groups, as well as to how the changes brought about by the encroaching deinstitutionalization, care in the community, and decisions from "above" affected the individuals on the ground.