Recreation Services

There are three types of recreation services at St. Vincent’s. First, and most common, there are the supervised athletic and social activities such as pick-up basketball at the sports court, outings to movies and games nights. Second, there are opportunities for organized league sports in the community, such as CYO basketball and Little League baseball. Third, there are therapeutic recreation sessions as part of day treatment services.

Therapeutic recreation is a “non-traditional therapy” using self-expression and participation in game-like activities with a facilitator and/or other clients for the purpose of developing self-esteem, improving coordination, balance and strength, enhancing cooperation and augmenting the capacity to regulate energy and mood. The therapeutic recreational activities in the day treatment sessions are basically rehabilitative in nature, although many clients may never have developed adequate bodily awareness and control to participate fully in recreational activities.

For many boys, participation in sports or organized social activities is quite challenging and they need to practice several kinds of “sub-skills” such as temper control and playing by the rules before they can actually participate, but as soon as they can and are interested, they are supported to do so. Not all boys enjoy sports activities, of course, and for them there are arts and crafts activities, and in school, music and even some exposure to more specialized expressive arts such as drama.