Main description:

Issues of leisure and dying are not often discussed in depth by those in recreation or thanatology. However, Recreation, Leisure, and Chronic Illness bridges the gap between leisure and thanatology. Professionals know that when illness, disability, stress, or poverty threaten the quantity and quality of a person's life, leisure takes on great meaning. Readers will find in this truly unique book how leisure can be a positive counterforce to the physical and mental diminishments that erode health and work.Contributors to Recreation, Leisure and Chronic Illness explore the philosophy of leisure and how freedom, enjoyment, self-determination, and breaking the set patterns of daily life are central to true leisure, for persons in all walks of life. These authors illustrate the need for leisure in a wide variety of settings and in the face of multiple threats to both the quantity and the quality of life. Readers will find chapters filled with expert theories on how to help clients with limiting conditions realize the fulfillment of their leisure desires, the problem of groups left at the margins of the current health care policy who are also poorly served by the leisure professions, and the inevitable funding dilemma. Specific chapters focus on:

improving leisure lifestyles as a crucial first step in rehabilitation
the role and importance of recreation in lives of persons with AIDS
benefits of recreation programs in senior centers and care centers
community-based recreation programs that emphasize preserving existing coping patterns and maintaining daily functioning
the ability of recreation to sustain hope for psychiatric patients
relationships between leisure education and death education
how creative activities--music, dance, art, and creative writing--are used to promote physical mental healthWhile the chapters in Recreation, Leisure and Chronic Illness range from policy issues to specific recreation programs, as a whole they show the healing power of leisure. Professionals and students in both recreation and thanatology fields will find this volume an enlightening approach to promoting healing in those suffering from life-threatening conditions--medical, social, economic, or environmental.

Contents:

Contents
Preface

Trends That Affect the Quality of Life Through Leisure: Recreation as a Tool for Enhancement
Work, Health, and Recreation: Aspects of the Total Person
Balancing Changing Health Care Needs With the Shortage of Quality Health Care Professionals: Implications for Therapeutic Recreation
Clinical Effectiveness of Intense Therapeutic Recreation: A Multiple Case Study of Private Practice Intervention
Quality of Living Until Death: A Fusion of Death Awareness into Therapeutic Recreation-Leisure Education
Psychosocial Issues Confronting Health Care Professionals Working With People With AIDS
Occupational Therapy Intervention in Recreational Activities in Acute Care Settings
Acute Care vs. Chronic Care Models of Service to the Elderly: Implications for Therapeutic Recreation
Surviving a Fate Worse than Death: The Plight of the Homebound Elderly
Therapeutic Group Activities With Alzheimer's Patients
Meaningful Life Activities for Elderly Residents of Residential Health Care Facilities
From Custodial Care to Quality Care: Implications for the Therapeutic Recreation Professional
The Therapeutic Value of Art for Persons With Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders
The Effectiveness of Cueing on Anagram Solving by Cognitively Impaired Nursing Home Elderly
Recreation in the Nursing Home
Playing for Keeps
Reference Notes Included