Course Description
The Internship, implemented in partnership between Douglas College and an approved Agency, offers the student the opportunity to apply classroom theory and skills. Supervised by the College faculty and qualified Agency staff, students will plan, develop, implement, monitor and evaluate individual and group programs and projects aimed to provide and promote therapeutic recreation and/or health promotion.
Course Content
Professional Roles and Responsibilities
- Therapeutic relationships
- Safe practice and safety awareness
- Adhere to professional and agency standards, code of ethics and policies and procedures
- Quality improvement process
- Confidentiality in all communications concerning the agency
- Self-awareness and self-evaluation skills
- Accept and apply constructive criticism
- Personal wellness and appropriate work habits
Assessment
- Referral processes
- Pertinent client information including disabling conditions
- Knowledge and use of a variety of assessment tools and techniques
- Conduct assessments including behavioural observations
- Documentation of assessment results
Individual Interventions, Planning and Implementing
- Individual program plan
- Appropriate interventions
- Leisure counseling strategies with individual clients
- Facilitation techniques
- Activity/task analysis and activity adaptation
Therapeutic Recreation Programs
- Program protocols
- Group assessment including awareness of group development, dynamics and needs
- Breadth and depth in recreation activity skills
- Group leadership including leisure education groups
- Activity/task analysis and activity adaptation
- Theories and practice of leisure education and counseling
Evaluate Outcomes of Interventions and Programs
- Changes in functioning
- Goal attainment scaling
- Effectiveness and outcomes of individual plans
- Revisions of individual plans as identified
- Effectiveness of protocols and programs for groups
- Revisions of group protocols and programs as identified
Working with Treatment/Service Teams
- Therapeutic Recreation information shared with team
- Communication with client
- Integrate intervention plan
- Work collaboratively
Managing Therapeutic Recreation Services
- Program inventory
- Coordination of support services
- Program budget and expenses records
- Scheduling of program, staff and volunteers
- Risk Management
- Standards and regulations at agency
- Fiscal management practices
- Quality management practices
- Human resource management
Promotion of Profession
- Community networking
- Advocacy of clients
- Education to community and agency
- Marketing and public relations
- Multi agency projects
Health Promotion Strategies: Empower Individuals
- Educates about healthy lifestyle
- Provides information about healthy choices
- Promotes self-responsibility for health
- Leisure a source for health
Health Promotion Strategies: Empower Communities
- Identify public health promotion policy
- Create supportive environments
- Community development a source for health
- Social support
- Public participation in health.
Means of Assessment
This course will conform to Douglas College policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations. Typical means of evaluation would include a combination of:
- Demonstration of skills
- Self assessment
- Observations by site supervisors
- Completion of written assignments
- Participation in seminars
- Midpoint and final evaluation meetings with site supervisor and college supervisor.
This is a Mastery/Non-Mastery course.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate professional values, roles and responsibilities
- conduct leisure and health related client assessments
- plan, implement, monitor, evaluate and document individual program plans
- plan, implement, evaluate and document health promotion and therapeutic recreation programs and projects
- demonstrate the ability to work effectively with treatment or service teams
- describe the management practices of the agency
- promote therapeutic recreation as a profession
- demonstrate health promotion strategies which enable consumers to increase control over and to improve health
- demonstrate health promotion strategies that strengthen community development.