Cost benefits of services provided by Therapeutic Recreation Specialists  The bottom line shows -- Services by therapeutic recreation specialists and assistants are COST-EFFECTIVE!  Here is a sampling of examples and reasons: Increasing activity level and involvement in community life reduces medical complications and costly secondary disabilities after onset of a disability.  Interestingly, research does not show a similar correlation when simply improving physical abilities. Increasing social skills, expanding social networks, and improving community living skills reduces dependence on  health and human service programs and decreases the need for costlier residential and behavioral supports. In many situations, therapeutic recreation specialists provide services in a group treatment versus a 1:1 treatment format thus,  more treatment services can be delivered at the same salary expense. Active involvement in therapeutic recreation specialists' services improves community living skills, increases independence and reduces the need for extended inpatient hospitalization. Therapeutic recreation specialists assist in the reduction of secondary disabilities such as reducing the occurrence of decubitus ulcers and the costs incurred in their treatment. Therapeutic recreation specialists positively impact the emotional recovery from illness or injury and, in turn, enhance compliance with medical treatment. Hospitalized children who participated in structured games demonstrated improved mobility and range of motion, decreased loss of function, and increased rates of healing.   Further, children recovering form surgery receiving play interventions demonstrated increased rates of healing, as well as improved appetite and strength. A primary reason that many job placements fail is not because of  an individual lacks of the necessary job skills but, instead, because the individual is no able respond to the social demands of the job environment.  Therapeutic recreation specialists promote the development of pertinent social skills that are transferable to many vocational and avocational settings.  The costs of therapeutic recreation specialists' are reasonable.  In order for North Carolinians to receive economical health care, therapeutic recreation specialists and assistants must continue to be included  health and human service plans.     back to professional info page