My Personal Philosophy Of TR As A Profession

Chelsee Schoen
RECR 4030
Instructor: Wenzel
Synthesis Paper

There was a lot of issues both that benefited and hurt the Therapeutic Recreation professions that were brought up in class. I hope the current generation can help make a change in TR going forward. In this paper, I am going to discuss TR as a profession, my personal philosophy of TR, the critical issues that are facing the profession, my perspective on how to address these issues and my professional - personal agenda for the TR profession.
In 1854, Florence Nightingale, a nurse, from England started forming different protocols for the hospital setting during war time that involved nightly cleaning of patient rooms, laundry services and kitchens that had appealing food for

patients with special dietary requirements. On top of that she started creating a variety of services that improved patient quality of life (QOL) (1).
In 1889, cofounders Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr started providing community and recreation services to the poor. It was located Chicago, IL and had opened it's doors to a variety of individuals including European immigrants that had just arrived in the United States. The Hull House provided innovative social, educational and artistic programs year around. The Hull House finally closed in 2012. In my opinion, this was a major accomplishment for a company to be around for 122 years.
Recreation had formally been started in 1889 when Jane Addams founded the Hull house which provided community services and recreation to the poor. TR started about fifty years after physical (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) (). At this time both PT and OT, had made themselves known in the hospital and rehab setting as well as getting themselves written into different laws to get the funding they needed.