2019 Annual Conference

Evidence-based practice has become imperative to recreational therapy (RT), as it informs our APIED process, and assists us in validating RT when speaking to stakeholders. As the need for more RT-specific evidence grows, we should consider using qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis (QIMS) as a method for producing data that succinctly captures the lived experience of populations that we serve, and the therapeutic outcomes of RT services provided them. The purpose of this session is to introduce recreational therapists to QIMS, a methodology introduced in social work (Aguirre & Bolton, 2014), in which data from qualitative studies are mined, combined, and analyzed to create a new, in-depth understanding of a selected topic(s). Specific to RT, newly generated data could be used by practitioners to inform the development of standardized RT assessments and intervention protocols, or to generate a new concept or theoretical framework for application in practice.