title: Therapeutic recreation for long-term care patients.
abstract: The present study evaluates the impact of a therapeutic recreation program on the life satisfaction and activity level of hospitalized geropsychiatric patients. Sixty-one inpatients from a VA Medical Center were randomly assigned to participate either in a community recreation program for ten consecutive Saturdays or to engage in the regularly scheduled hospital program. Data from four observational instruments established a baseline of activities and confirmed that the study group's life satisfaction appears quite comparable to previously published reports. While the results showed no significant differences among pre-post measures, the clinical staff who accompanied the recreation group reported many unsolicited patient responses indicating consistently high and uniform expressions of satisfaction throughout the trial period. A discussion clarifies how therapeutic evaluation procedures could be made more appropriate for a geropsychiatric population.
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005852:Geriatric Psychiatry; D006746:Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008396:Maryland; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011998:Recreation