Critique
of A Comprehensive Therapeutic Recreation Intervention
Chessa
Hedman
Brigham
Young University
Critique
of A Comprehensive Therapeutic Recreation Intervention
I read an article entitled, A Comprehensive Therapeutic
Recreation Intervention: A Woman with
Schizophrenia. I will begin by giving
you a summary of the article. I will
then share my opinion of the strengths and weaknesses that the article
had. Following that, I will explain how
the article can be used or applied and I will end by sharing my personal
reaction and interests in the article.
Summary
of the Article
The article began by explaining the diagnoses of a
thirty-six year old woman, who they refer to as Ms. L, and how her diagnosis
came about throughout her life. At a
young age she was very anti-social. She
would often go off on her own, suck her thumb, and appear as if she were in her
own world. This shyness continued
through her preteen years. At age 16,
during her biology class they were required to dissect a frog. “She reported feeling disgusted by the
dissection and began spitting in the sink frequently” (Gimmestad, 1995, p.
57). This phobia of germs began to get
worse and worse throughout her life to the point where she would wash her hands
and spit in the sink for hours. She also
stopped eating at times. These symptoms
then progressed into hearing voices, seeing people and believing that other
people who didn’t exist were her real family.
Ms. L’s parents kept her in their home for seventeen years, they then
checked her into a hospital. At the
hospital, she took part in some research for recreational therapy and family
treatment. The article discusses her
processes and progress in the hospital.
“For the first twelve months of treatment, Ms. L absolutely refused to
meet with her mother” (Gimmestad, 1995, p. 59).
She would say how she hated her mother and she would cry and shake
uncontrollably, however, “Eventually Ms. L visited with her mother on the ward
on a regular basis” (Gimmestad, 1995, p. 60).
She still did not have complete success as she still demonstrated many
of her same symptoms and had many setbacks of refusing to see her mother. The article ends by questioning how
successful they truly were with Ms. L.
They questioned her motivation, but the author said, “I would like to
think that for the first time in nineteen years she was able to learn how to
interact and get close to other people” (Gimmestad, 1995, p. 62).
Strengths
and Weaknesses of the Article
I personally found the article to be very
interesting. I am fascinated by
schizophrenia and so to read in detail how this woman’s life progressed was
very fascinating to me. The author did a
great job at giving specific detail and keeping the reader interested. One thing that I felt was a weakness was the
fact that her intentions of the article were not very clear. The title infers that the article will be
focused on how therapeutic recreation had an impact on this woman’s life. In my opinion, that was not the focus at
all. There was little information as to
how the therapeutic recreation affected her.
It mentioned some progress that she did have, such as becoming slightly
more interactive with others, yet it did not say how this progress was a result
of, or even related to therapeutic recreation.
How
the Article can be used or applied
If someone is seeking out information on schizophrenia
and how it can impact a person’s life, this is the article for you. It gives very useful information on the process
Ms. L went through. It begins at her
early life and continues throughout all the years of her life up until the
article was written when she was thirty-six years old. One can see the impact that schizophrenia had
on this woman at each year of her life.
They can see how it progressed from different life events. One can learn that it is a long process and
treatment can be very difficult. From a
recreational therapist perspective, I would say that it could be good
information for young and new recreational therapists to read. It gives them an idea of people they could
potentially be working with. If they are
looking to see how therapeutic recreation can impact a person with
schizophrenia, I would not recommend this article. However, it is a very interesting article
that provides great information on schizophrenia.
My
personal reaction and interests in the Article
Overall, I found the article very interesting. When I saw the title of the article and
noticed that it had something to do with a woman with schizophrenia, I was
automatically interested. I worked in a
mental health facility for a little over a year and I also worked for the
foster care system for those with mental and physical disabilities. Through both of these jobs, I have had experience
and been around a lot of people with schizophrenia. I find it very fascinating. I also have an uncle and a friend who have
schizophrenia. It is amazing to me to
read and learn about the symptoms and how these symptoms can be triggered and
developed. I enjoyed reading the
article, as it provided a lot of interesting information for me regarding
schizophrenia. I was also interested in
learning more about how therapeutic recreation can have an impact on a person
with schizophrenia, and I do not feel that this article provided me with that
information. That was a little
disappointing for me. However, all in
all, it was a great article that taught me a lot about schizophrenia.
References
Gimmestad,
K. (1995). A Comprehensive therapeutic recreation
intervention: A woman with schizophrenia. Therapeutic
Recreation Journal, 29(1), 56-62.
Retrieved from http://js.sagamorepub.com/trj/article/view/1253/1222
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