Radiant Minds: Nurturing Mental Health for All - ATRA's Mental Health Virtual Summit 2024

This session is designed for professionals seeking to enhance their skills, self-awareness and well-being through reflective practice. It will explore the concepts of self-reflection, peer reflection, and reflection with clients. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of reflective practice and learn how to create opportunities for reflection with peers and clients. In this practical session, participants will acquire a diverse set of techniques, tools, and exercises that can be directly applied in their professional work.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE's) shape not only the child's development, but also mental health throughout the lifespan. Through this presentation, we will review models and theories of child development, various ACE's, and the lifetime effects of various ACE's on mental health. We will also review how Recreational Therapy can aid in building resiliency and strategies for coping with various ACE's in both childhood and adulthood.

This session will focus on identifying the characteristics of the LGBTQIA+ community, the impact of stigma and biases on mental health affecting this community, current best practices in RT and recommendations for facilitation of appropriate interventions when treating patients who identify with the community to improve mental health outcomes.

Community inclusion and participation is a key outcome of recreational therapy services. This session will provide an overview of the role of community participation in the health and well-being of adults with serious mental illness (SMI) being conducted by RT researchers at the Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion. This session will also provide research findings from studies currently being conducted by RT researchers. This includes 1) an intervention study supporting parents with SMI to enhance connections with their children through family leisure, as well as 2) an intervention study to support the development of collective efficacy among adults with SMI to increase community participation, as well as 3) a research study to identify everyday factors associated with loneliness and mattering among adults with SMI. Research findings will be discussed in terms of implications for recreational therapy practice and future research on community inclusion and participation

This session will be focused on a few techniques from the Resilience Advantage program within HeartMath by a Certified HeartMath Trainer and HeartMath Certified Trauma Sensitive Practitioner. Several techniques will be shown including Heart-Focused Breathing, Depleting and Renewing Emotions Excercise and the Heart Lock In. Participants will be taught how to shift into coherence as well as use HeartMath techniques when working with clients/patients with trauma. 

Presentation will explore the value in caregivers actively involved in taking care of ill loved ones.  On the front line they often neglect themselves, which can have negative effects both on their ill loved ones, and their own mental health.  We will explore ways to communicate needs both to and from healthcare workers, and suggest ways to improve their ability to participate wholly in the caregiver process. 

A big part of what we want to do is leave an impact in the sand - to touch others' lives and make a difference. To do this, we must connect with our humanity and identify how we want to effect the world. We are interconnected and rely so much on each other to get through life. Gratitude and appreciation, how we show up for others, and how we engage and connect with the world around us truly influence our being.

Join Dan Bigley, the "bear man", to hear his story and be challenged on how we can show up for others to build community to respond to the world and life around us. 

In addition to Dan's recorded keynote session, Dan will be joining us for a 1 hour Zoom question and answer session during February - date to be determined. 

Healthcare providers including Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists (CTRSs) are at a 16-times greater risk for nonfatal workplace violence (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). Inappropriate sexual behaviors (ISBs) are one example of this type of violence. ISBs occur more frequently in certain health care settings such as psychiatric care. Many factors that increase an individual’s risk or engaging in ISBs align with mental health diagnoses or comorbid traumatic experiences. During this session, participants will further define ISBs, discuss trends in health care, and methods for managing and responding to ISBs faced by Therapeutic Recreation (TR) professionals. This session will include an interactive component to discuss a clinical scenario and allow time for participants to develop appropriate responses and solutions for managing ISBs.

It is commonly accepted that college students are facing more and more mental health issues. We feel it in the college classroom and as supervisors of interns and new professionals.

Not only did COVID-19 impact this but the multiple demands and pressures have significantly impacted student learning and engagement. What can educators and supervisors do to facilitate student and new professional learning and help them get the support they need? This session will present information on the college student mental health crisis and share research on what educators and supervisors can do to support college students and new graduates. Ideas for integrating Recreational Therapy interventions into the classroom and clinical supervision sessions will be shared as well.  

This presentation will define Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and the role of Recreational Therapy (RT) in addressing the unique needs of individuals in an inpatient treatment program, including specific modalities and interventions, based on current research and best practices.

Recreation Therapists provide individual and group programming in partial and inpatient psychiatric hospitalization settings throughout the country. Activity based programming is commonly described as life skills education, emotions management, experiential learning, dialectical behavior therapy, adventure programming and activity therapy etc.

This presentation explores the power of language and the importance of reframing the clinical approach of treatment planning, programming and advocacy by the Recreational Therapist. This session will educate RT professionals on how to utilize informed suicide prevention language when providing services to individuals who are experiencing suicidal idation. 

In this session, hear about an engaging and informative presentation on the innovative Sequoia program, designed to transform the lives of families in need. The Sequoia program consists of two key components, parent-focused therapy sessions and child-focused therapy sessions, that offer a comprehensive approach to family therapy. The parent-focused sessions span six weeks, where parents collaborate with therapists to explore vital therapeutic topics. Topics covered include parenting self-esteem, attachment styles, positive parenting techniques, and coping strategies, among others. This comprehensive curriculum equips parents with essential skills and insights to foster a healthy family environment.

Just like their parents, children engage in six weeks of therapy sessions, focusing on their unique needs. The curriculum includes topics such as self-esteem, academic wellness, the mind-body connection, identity development, and coping tools. These sessions empower children to grow and develop in a supportive and nurturing atmosphere.

This session will provide clinicians with an in-depth understanding of this curriculum and how to implement these resources into their own care, along with exploring how the program can be tailored to meet the specific needs of different families that therapists may be working with. The session is designed to equip clinicians with the knowledge and tools they need to make a meaningful difference in the lives of the families they work with. Join us in exploring the Sequoia curriculum and discover how it can be a transformative resource for the children and parents you serve.

Working with veterans? Let's take a dive into clients who have experienced shell shock in foreign or domestic lands.

Learn about combat veterans, the unique trauma that they experience, and the restorative outcomes of recreational therapies as veterans transition successfully to civilian life. This session will include interventions, discussion of trauma, and the importance of recreational therapy within this population. 

In the US, more young people identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community than ever before. Additionally, youth are beginning to understand, acknowledge, and express their gender identity and sexual orientation at a younger age. Open expression of oneself can be an empowering experience for LGBTQ+ youth. When this expression is met with rejection, however, negative outcomes across the dimensions of health are more likely to occur.

LGBTQ+ youth face a variety of unique stressors. When compared to cisgender and heterosexual peers, LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to report bullying and harassment, discrimination, social isolation, homelessness, and violence. These compounding factors result in LGBTQ+ youth experiencing a variety of mental health disorders and symptoms at a higher rate than peers outside of the community, including anxiety, depression, substance abuse, self-harm, and suicidal ideation. Within the LGBTQ+ community, gender diverse youth represent a population even further at risk for poor mental health outcomes. With recent increases in legislation aiming to regulate access to public facilities and sources of recreation, such as restrooms, locker rooms, and school-based athletics, accessing and participating in meaningful leisure outlets can be increasingly complex for gender diverse youth.

According to the American Therapeutic Recreation Association Code of Ethics, TRs are responsible for ensuring that individuals are served fairly and equitably regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Due to our specific skill set, professional values, and client-centered and strengths-based approach, TR practitioners are well-poised to provide and lead other healthcare and social service professionals in providing informed and affirming services to gender diverse youth. This presentation will examine key considerations essential to providing inclusive, high-quality, evidence-based TR intervention to gender diverse youth across settings. Population level concerns, demographic and societal trends, and strategies for navigating complex family relationships will be reviewed, and further resources for learning will be explored. Unique considerations for enhancing access to and participation in leisure will be examined, and ethical considerations for treating gender diverse youth as a TR professional will be discussed.

Embedding mindfulness, yoga and well-being practices into beekeeing education, has demonstrated positive changes in Veterans in the HIVES (Honeybee Initiative for Veterans' Empowerment and Support) Program. This presentation will discuss impact participation the HIVES program has on the participants' depressoin, anxiety, and overall well-being scores evaulated during a Quailty Improvment Project at the VA in New Hampshire. Participants will also bulid an undestanding of how to implement a therapeutic beekeeping program and how to include yoga and mindfulness as part of the leisure activity. 

Positive psychology is an area of psychology that encourages individuals to strengthen their quality of life through a focus on strengths and empowerment. This focus on life satisfaction and well-being is a perfect foundation for Recreational Therapy practice in mental health recovery services. In this session, we will explore the principals of positive psychology and practical ways for recreational therapists to utilize these theories to build evidence-based practice.

Working with young and displaced clients? The US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development states that 4.2 million youth and young adults experience homelessness. 700.000 of this number are unaccompanied refugee minors. This session will dive into their challenges and how recreational therapy interventions can improve health outcomes for this population.