Essay Example on Working at Milford Health & Rehab: Enhancing Lives Through Quality Care

Introduction

My placement is at Milford Health and Rehabilitation Center as a Recreation Aide. Milford Health and Rehabilitation Center is committed to providing high-quality care by focusing on patients and customer services. The center aims at meeting the shifting healthcare needs in regards to the communities served. The center offers both long term and short-term care for patients. The short-term care usually entails 5-9 months. They have a service termed as the passport rehabilitation program which restores patients to health. Every individual under their care has varying therapy requirements. Therefore, an individual's rehabilitation is tailored to reality series and short-term achievements which enable patients to get home. The center's services are designed to allow individuals to get the required skills and abilities for living a healthy life. They have dedicated staff who cater to the needs of their patients, such as availing customized services for those struggling with various physical challenges. These services are offered by Milford 7 days a week. Some of the passport programs provided by the center include occupational, physical and speech therapy. Besides, they have 24-hour APRNS a head nursing supervisor and many outsourced doctors. The center serves patients with 18 years of age or more recovering from a fall, a car accident or major surgeries.

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Treatment approaches have been demonstrated to be beneficial

Recreation aides design and lead various recreational and leisure activities for groups in volunteer agencies and facilities of recreations. Recreation aides lead activities like arts and crafts, music, dance, music and camping. These activities are performed by individuals to improve their mental health and emotional wellbeing. There is a positive and direct relationship between mental health and group activities because participating in sports and recreational activities have proven to reduce stress, anxiety and depression. When people engage in group recreational activities, they stand a better chance of improvising their attachment and belongingness sense. According to Dwulit (2017), the social cognitive theory and behaviours of individuals depend on how they interact with environmental factors.

For a long time, people with disabilities have been engaging in exercise and learning recreational activities across societies. From 1980, different agencies have been implementing various inclusive recreation programs. People with disabilities and recreational aides started advocating for community inclusion. In 1980s laws supporting the inclusive community recreation movement were passed, the most prominent being the Act of Americans with Disability in 1990 (Dwulit, 2017). The recreation aides and therapeutic specialists have worked together in developing different strategies of improving programs for them to accommodate more people. Recreational aides design activities to help patients and disabled people improve their mental and physical wellbeing. Different recreational, therapeutic activities have proven to be effective for patients both in terms of physical health and emotional wellbeing. Examples of such interventions include creative arts such as music, drama and crafts, games, various sporting activities, activities of skills enhancement such as locomotion and communication (Dwulit, 2017).

Intervention areas

Arts and crafts

Recreation aides engage in teaching arts and crafts. Overtime, arts and crafts have demonstrated the capability of providing patients with opportunities to relax, feel an accomplishment sense, find pride, improve skills of fine motor, develop a hobby and ensure the maintenance of an alert mind. Recreational aides provide their patients with this type of activities to engage their minds and distract them from various conditions they might be undergoing. Arts and crafts include activities such as painting, woodworking, weaving and ceramics. It is common to find sick people being depressed because of their challenging health conditions; therefore, in such scenarios, they need various recreational activities to distract them. A study by Carter & Van Andel (2019) shows that depression decreases after program interventions such as arts and crafts recreations because they have a positive impact on the health of an individual. Furthermore, these skills are even effective after the patient's recovery in that they can be used for independent living on later days.

Games and sports

Recreation aides are in charge of games and sports because they are responsible for planning and scheduling various activities such as baseball and football games within the facility. Moreover, they are the couches and supervisors of the games at the same time, either within the facility or outside it. Furthermore, they give instructions and also train those patients that might be interested in playing the game but are limited by the fact they lack the required skills. In regards to games and sports, they also play a role of monitoring and maintaining gymnasiums as they guide the patients on the specific exercises to engage in to boost recovery. Games and sports have for a long time been the best recreational activities individuals may opt to engage in. For instance, the recreation aides guide their various patients through yoga classes. Yoga aims at enabling the patients to achieve a union with supreme consciousness. Also, it helps in achieving the physical and mental fitness of patients. Therefore, the aides teach the patients on the appropriate and right postures that will be beneficial to their general health.

Musical and entertainment activities

Recreation aides also lead their patients towards musical and entertainment activities which have proven to be better ways of treating patients in rehabilitation centers. The aides are in place to lead groups towards various musical activities which distracts their mind from the challenges that might contribute to increased stress levels. While leading them in musical activities, they keep track of their records on performances, behaviour and progress. With this in action, patients are motivated to perform better in order to gain recognition from their recreation aides; this, in turn, improves their emotional wellbeing. In terms of entertainment, they plan various games such as mind games alongside other entertainment activities. Various games, such as solving puzzles like crosswords and brain teasers, have been beneficial for the patients in terms of exercising minds (Marques et al., 2017). Moreover, this type of activity prevents patients most, particularly the older ones from delicate ageing conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. Besides, they also organize various entertainment functions whereby the patients can showcase their talents hence entertaining others at the same time.

Walking

Recreational aides guide their patients to observe walking as a therapeutical activity. Walking is among the common exercises whose benefits have been overtime underrated. Walking is very significant for patients as it has proven to reduce depression and stress hence maintaining the emotional wellbeing of individuals. Perhaps, it is the best physical exercise as it is applicable for all age groups. The chance of inhaling fresher air and seeing green sceneries aids in the reduction of depression levels. Recreational aides encourage older parents to wear comfortable shoes that offer them support and not make them tired.

Skills enhanced

Motor skills

According to Morales, Lorenzo & de la Rosa (2016), recreation aides enhance the motor skills of different patients. Motor skills entail the improvement of movements and actions of the bone structures for individuals with body fragments. This type of skills applies to an individual that most likely fractured some parts of their body because of instances such as accidents. Dyspraxia is a condition that affects one's ability to coordinate movement as it interferes with the fine motor movements such as running or jumping. The recreation aides help individuals with such motor problems become more independent through alteration of tasks and improve their environment. In this regard, they help improve the motor skills of their patients through various activities they lead them in.

Social and cognitive functioning

Hereby, the recreation aides teach their patients how to process, store and apply other people's information and social situations. They help their clients understand the role played by the cognitive process in their social interactions. The way individual's think about their fellows play a significant role in how they think, feel and interact with others. Recreation aides teach the patients to be socially active by engaging them in the various recreational activities that enable them to relate with others (Morales, Lorenzo & de la Rosa, 2016). In the long run, the patients are able to gain the social skills that enable them to relate well with other people.

Building confidence

Recreation aides also build confidence among their patients through various activities. For instance, they teach them on different arts and crafts such as paintings and woodwork. In addition, they review their performances on various sports and entertainment activities hence encourage and motivates them on their talents. In this regard, they play a significant role of improving their confidence in relation to their talents.

The Reflection on how the placement site runs its programs

The Milford Health and Rehabilitation Center runs its programs appropriately by putting their client's concerns as their first priority. The staff of the facility are always concerned and dedicated to helping every client by providing support and guidance on one on one basis. They offer programs such as physical therapy, speech and occupational therapy which aims at restoring the conditions of patients before the occurrence of an accident that rather interferes with their motor abilities. Their practices are keeping with the gold standard because the facility has professional clinicians who work towards improving the wellbeing of their patients. Furthermore, they are highly equipped with the necessary equipment required to treat various patients with varying conditions. However, the facility has fallen short of medical staff management because some staff have been found going against the medical ethical standards; however, the facility takes the matter lightly.

Conclusion

In summary, The Milford Health and Rehabilitation Center is one facility that provides quality services to its clients. Through recreation aides, patients are provided with quality recreation activities that help in the restoration of their wellbeing. Moreover, the activities play significant roles in their lives as they improve their physical, social and emotional wellbeing. In the long run, patients benefit from these services because they engage with most of the activities; they learn, such as arts and crafts even after recovery.

References

Carter, M. J., & Van Andel, G. E. (2019). Therapeutic recreation: A practical approach. Waveland press.

Dwulit, M. P. (2017). Student Perceptions of Therapeutic Recreation: An Exploratory Study. Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 51(3), 193.

Morales, S. C., Lorenzo, A. F., & de la Rosa, F. L. C. (2016). Recreation activities to improve social behavior. Study in children and adolescents aged 9-14. Revista Cubana de Medicina General Integral, 32(3).

Marques, C., Reis, E., Menezes, J., & Salgueiro, M. D. F. (2017). Modelling preferences for nature-based recreation activities. Leisure Studies, 36(1), 89-107.