Bridget Rickels Makes Recreational Therapy Serious Fun
As you may have noticed, we like our holidays here at North Sunflower Medical Center. Coming fast on the heels of June’s Certified Nursing Assistant Month, we went all out celebrating America’s birthday on the Fourth of July. And now this week – the second week of July – is National Therapeutic Recreation Week. At North Sunflower Medical Center, our resident Recreational Therapist is Bridget Rickels. She has been part of the North Sunflower family for 13 years. “North Sunflower just feels like home.” Bridget also likes to say, “Recreational Therapy provides play with a purpose to enhance an individual’s life.”
According to the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification, therapeutic recreation is treatment services and recreation activities to treat and help maintain the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of their clients by seeking to reduce depression, stress, and anxiety; recover basic motor functioning and reasoning abilities; build confidence, and socialize effectively. This includes a variety of techniques including arts and crafts, animals, sports, games, dance and movement, drama, music, and community outings.
Bridget mostly works with our geriatric patients to reduce depression, stress or anxiety. “Each patient is different. So you have to be creative and adjust every day to find new ways to help that person get healthy.”
As the name would suggest, recreational therapy is fun, but it also provides activities designed to help patients live healthier. “It takes a special someone to work with patients who have a variety of disabling conditions. There are days when it can be difficult. But you continue to work harder because you know this could be the turning point in someone’s life.”
