Shelley Alward-MacLeod 0:00
Hello and Welcome to Season Two of Within Our Reach, a podcast all about accessibility, inclusion and leveling the playing field at work and in our community. I'm Shelley Alward MacLeod, and I'm joined by my co host, Blake Hunsley, and our guest today is Olivia Pliner. Pliner? Pleh-ner. Pleh-ner. Okay, perfect. Recreation therapist with West Bedford transitional health. So Olivia, thanks for joining us today.

Olivia Pliner 0:23
Thank you so much for having me.

Blake Hunsley 0:25
I'm so glad you said recreation therapist and not recreational because, as I got schooled right before we started, I had the wrong one in my notes. So I think that's a great place to start, if we can, because this is going to be a very fun episode for me, because I know nothing about recreation therapy, which is my favorite kind of episode, is when I get to learn along with the audience, which happens more often than it potentially should, sure does. So I guess, to start off, what is recreation therapy? And since I had the wrong one written down, what is the difference between recreation and recreational therapy?

Olivia Pliner 0:55
So recreational therapy is something that we would say is just recreational it's just for fun. We're just kind of doing it to have a blast, but recreation therapy is where we use recreation as a tool to reach goals. Okay, so it's often seen in healthcare, because that's where we see a lot of needs, with supporting people to get discharged from hospital, people who are trying to increase their wellness, because we're utilizing it as a tool, similar to physiotherapy or occupational therapy. We're having it as a tool, though. That's why it's the little

Blake Hunsley 1:27
difference there. Okay, so what is really involved, like having coming in as a complete novice, what would I expect? What sort of potential program of therapy could I expect from you if I was seeing you in a healthcare sort of recovery sort of scenario.

Olivia Pliner 1:42
It's a very vast program, so it's always going to be tailored for the person. So we're always going to look at their strengths, their needs, what their normal is as well. So it's kind of like fitting it specific for the person. Okay? So there's a lot of assessments, there's a lot of figuring out the person individually and then making a plan. So for example, if somebody was in hospital and they are recovering delirium, recreation therapy would be there as a support for increasing their cognitions. There's some studies that show that if you're involved in an activity that's cognitive based that is of interest, you're going to have exponentially better recovery. So they say that if you're interested in fishing, say, then if you're working on cognition, maybe we would work on puzzles about fishing, because you connect to it better. So we're trying to improve their health and wellness, but in a way that makes it enjoyable and fun and something that would stick better. I think

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 2:45
that's very interesting that you say that, because I immediately, when we started talking more about rehabilitation, or that's what was the word that was sticking, in my mind, I was thinking it was about to ask, because it's only for physical injuries or illnesses. And then you were you showed your example of delirium. So the other misconception that I had right away was, when I think of recreation, I think of like, you know, going to like a rec center. And I was thinking about, Oh, they're going to be running or dancing, or there's going to be yoga or some kind of movement, and you then talked about puzzles, about fishing. So this is, this is very broad before we sort of delve into all the different types of therapy, like more examples. Let's first talk a little bit about you, okay, and how'd you get into this field?

Olivia Pliner 3:45
I actually went to do a co op in high school for psychology, and they put me with a recreation therapist. And during that time, it was only short, but during that time, I just saw the significant impact that you can have using rec therapy. And I just I got immediately connected to it. So then I went to Memorial University. I still was kind of thinking about psychology when I went. And luckily, Memorial has a rec therapy program, so I joined in there, and I no regrets. Lovely.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 4:16
Okay, so, so at West Bedford transitional health. Let's talk. What's a day in the life of your job look like

Olivia Pliner 4:28
West Bedford transitional health is a very new program. So a lot of what we're doing right now is experimenting, figuring it out, developing new things. It's quite an exciting time. It's a lot of fun for me, specifically, right, figuring all these new things out. But we accept patients from hospital who are medically stable, but there are barriers to getting home. Something is prohibiting them from being able to come sometimes it's physical their home is no longer accessible to them. Sometimes. Sometimes it's a little bit more social, where maybe their family aren't able to support them anymore. Sometimes their illnesses have progressed, where maybe home is just not as safe for them. So there's a lot of complexities on why somebody hasn't gone home from hospital directly. So we work as a very strong interdisciplinary team to figure out how we can achieve goals through all the different allied professionals, through nursing, social work, dietitian, OT, PT and rec therapy. So if we were to say someone is going home and they're medically stable, so we'd say, okay, good, you can go. But we recognize that they're actually socially isolated. They don't leave their home, and maybe their condition is going to get a lot worse if we don't support them with getting into their community or getting out of their house or getting resources. Then we try to stop that in the tracks right there to say, how do we stop this from continuing? It happened to them. How do we stop from them going home and having another hospital admission? We want people home, and we want them successfully at home long term. So rec therapy has been a major impact on that. When we say you need to get on community. Well, what's the barrier? Is it mobility? Is it confidence? Is it knowing what resources are out there? Is it making those social connections? Is it social skills we need to work on so we look at all those things and we see, how can we support those in our programs and in our one to one sessions in the facility, but also we take people out in community. We'll take them out to meet these places, meet these people, build that confidence, help them with navigating the environment, learning how to get through the winter, how to use transportation, all of those pieces, so that when they go home they don't say, like, well, now I'm I have it in here, but how do I do it? Try to actively do it with them. And it's from what I've seen, it's been very, very successful since then,

Blake Hunsley 7:03
I would imagine, because, like you said, you're kind of tailoring it to people's interests as well. So, you know, I think of things like, I've seen people who've been in for surgery, and then afterwards, it's you have to do your exercises, and they don't because they're miserable and they hate it, and nothing's been designed just for them. So it's lovely to hear that it's tailored to their interests, because I imagine the success rate and the uptake rate must be much higher when you do that.

Olivia Pliner 7:24
Yes, I heard a expression one time, and I can't quote who said it, but it was that Physiotherapy is going to give you the strength to get out of bed. Occupational Therapy is going to give you the tools to get out of bed, but recreation therapy is going to give you the reason to

Unknown Speaker 7:39
get out of bed. I

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 7:40
love that. And as you were saying all that, when you were talking about, you know, the sort of like the Allied, you know, team, I was actually thinking some of the things would be physiotherapy, some would be occupational therapy, because I work with a lot of occupational therapists and getting people to return to work, for instance, right? Like they're often because they come in in a successful workplace and sort of like the physical needs. But I think this is kind of important, because lots of times I'm actually seeing the reason somebody's coming back like it looks clear, like there's no reason from either physio or OT that they can't physically be able to do the job. Mentally? Okay, they're not ready to return. So there's something in the way of that. And I think the same could be said, like Blake was using an example of a person going home and not wanting to do their exercises. I'm thinking with somebody being released from the hospital, because, you know, they've been in the standard amount of time to be in as you're ready to go home. But if there's nobody actually at their home to assist them, and they've just had surgery or whatever, they're more likely for re injury, because some of the things they have to do are to sustain themselves, and then they're likely going back into the hospital. So this approach, and I've heard already some very positive things about the West Bedford and I guess it's calling transitional Health Center. I'm hearing from other people some really great things about the quality of care, like a totally different model than we're used to here in Nova Scotia, and frankly, much needed. Yeah, I

Olivia Pliner 7:40
think it's there's so much bed pressure in a hospital, they really have to get people out so they can treat those who are acutely unwell. This is just a really good opportunity for us to kind of stop those things from continuously happening to somebody like they don't have to continue to have the same situation happen and end up back in hospital. We can see that they've been to emerge four or five times in the last few months. Okay, let's stop that. What is happening that is making this happen? If you're in this environment, in a hospital, and you're doing great and physios. Going to get you and you're doing your exercising, you're feeling better than ever, but we also know you're in a one bedroom of carbon, and the most amount you have to walk is maybe three meters in the day. So how are we going to maintain your mobility if walking around your apartment isn't really giving you that much exercise? That's when recreation therapy is going to come in and say, let's connect you to a walking group. Maybe you want to volunteer to walk dogs at a shelter. Maybe you have some friends nearby that you want to connect with, or park that you might like. This is where we make it so that somebody wants to continue to be physical, to be mobile, to take care of themselves. Same with eating. We might suggest certain diets or things that you can do from maybe a diabetic management perspective, but then to say, go home and do this by yourself. Maybe it's not as feasible for them, but there's cooking groups out there, and there's different senior centers that have lunches that they serve, and places where people can actually really enjoy food together, and it might actually be much more successful than to say, here's the information, you can do this on your own. Good luck. It doesn't seem to be happening, right? You get those readmissions. So I think recreation therapy has really blossomed at West Bradford to show that we can really change the trajectory for people, they don't have to keep getting readmitted to hospital. I think community is one of the biggest things, connecting people to community, what's out there, what's around you. It's hard to find, especially on your own, who don't know technology super well, or know who to call when they have questions, yep, to say,

Olivia Pliner 7:40
nothing of what we encounter here, a lot, the different barriers because of different disabilities as well. So I am very pleasantly surprised. I have to say, I didn't expect there'd be such a social element to this, but it really sounds like a huge focus. And I mean, you know, somebody is going to be most at acute risk of just succumbing to loneliness if they're not only living alone but also dealing with health crises and just trying to get out of the hospital. So this must be, I would imagine, somewhat daunting for some patients, but kind of really welcome by the end, what sort of a, what sort of a blossoming of these patients do you see when they uptake these activities and these kind of social engagements?

Speaker 1 12:09
It's very fascinating, because some people will come in and I'll be like, Oh, they're super social, like, they're good to go, and then they kind of just stick to themselves, and then others. I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna have to really, like, I'm gonna have to really get this person going, and then they just do it on their own. It's very surprising sometimes how people will will interact. But when they come in, it has to be free choice. It kind of sucks. The fun everything. If I force people to do things mandatory, fun days, no choice. Yeah, it can suck. Some fun of it. So it's got to be their choice. So we try to just get them there on their own and really support and motivate them to do what makes them happy. But when you've motivated someone in the right way, and you see them coming to programs, and you see them socializing after, you know, they've been living alone, and they said, like, Ah, I'm fine alone. I'm fine by myself, and then they start to say things to you and the team, like, I've really enjoyed the programs here. I've really enjoyed being social. How can I do that? When I go home, that makes my whole body have goosebumps, like it makes me so happy when I hear people say that. Because to say, you can have this, you can have more. You don't have to go home and just be by yourself all the time. We can make these changes so that you have this long term wellness. I've taken a few people to senior centers, where I know they like to play crib, but they've always just kind of played with their family, but they're not super involved as much anymore. So we go to senior centers, and then I see them want to continue going to the senior centers. They make these friends. It's just heartwarming. It just makes me melt, and it makes it all worth it.

Blake Hunsley 13:44
I'm guessing this is something you saw in your Co Op program back in high school. You said you had seen some interventions and seen the impact of them. What sort of things did you see on your Co Op program that really stuck with you and made you think, Okay, this is something that makes me smile at the end of every work day kind of thing. Yeah.

Speaker 1 14:00
I mean, I was 17, and I was at the Abbey on the mental health unit with no training or anything. So I was very, very nervous, you know, I was young, and was like, I don't know what I'm doing, because I was anticipating to be with social work or psychology, somebody with a record. So like, I'm really out of my element here, but we did a few programs that I saw the effect. And sometimes it's not as obvious. People are going to say, Hey, I love that. I I feel stronger now. They're not always going to explicitly tell you, yes. So you can, you can kind of see it a little bit in them. We they're tapping their staff, yeah, yeah. Or you see they'll, they'll start to do something, you know, they seem like, very reserved, and then you'll see them start to engage, and you're like, Okay, this is working. We did an art program for a group, I think it was for eating disorders, and they were painting masks to kind of represent themselves and how they felt. And then we talked about it. So. Everyone was talking about their mask, how that mask represented themselves, and listening to all of them be able to explain how they felt through that art was it was very exciting. That's when I was like, Okay, this is really cool. Another gentleman and I were playing cards. I think we're just playing a board game or cards. He was opening up to me about all the things that he had been through in his life that were really challenging for him, that led him to where he was on that day, and just seeing the ease in him to talk to a stranger, we're playing a board game, and it really was like a focused and an ease relaxing environment for him to be able to open up. And that is something I see all the time. Now, we try not to do really, really formal assessments where I've got my paper, my clipboard, I'm checking things off. I try to do it in a setting where we can just talk and just learn more about each other, because to sit there and really pull that information out, people get a little bit more anxious, or you feel like somebody's interrogating you. I think if we're just talking about, hey, I love art. Do you what kind of art Do you enjoy? Oh, have you ever tried diamond art? Diamond art is so fun. Like, do you want to try it something? It just gets more of the person out of there. And we really are looking for the person we don't really want, their diagnosis, their life situation, their social supports. It's good info to know, but we want the person

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 16:24
exactly, because that's usually the issues that are standing in the way. So you all all of the examples and things that we've talked about now have been sort of from a medical or hospital setting, right? But I'm guessing that there's rec therapists that are like in a general setting,

Speaker 1 16:47
yeah, a lot is clinical like to do with Nova Scotia health, outpatient and inpatient clinics, a lot of long term care, right? Unfortunately, recreation therapy is not a regulated body yet. Okay, we're working on it. But what this means is that if there is a job that would be most appropriate for a recreation therapist or recreation therapy associate to be doing, the job doesn't have to go to somebody with the proper training. So it could be called recreation programmer, but they could hire somebody who doesn't have the education to do that, which means that our skill set is not necessarily where it could be right.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 17:27
Like with for instance, when you think about like medical plans and the paramedical center covered under health plans, it includes like, massage therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy. And in my head, I'm already thinking, I've never seen RT like recreational therapy, rec therapy. So that's watering down, right? The things that you could be doing, people are going away to get education, okay? To do this. Okay?

Olivia Pliner 17:55
So interesting? Yeah, there's a lot of us like, there's a lot of us who are wanting to go. And there's a lot of roles that we could do that we're not necessarily involved with yet. For example, the wellness navigators for the community health team. The Wellness navigators come from all different backgrounds. And for a while there was no recreation therapy, and now there is one great so it's like, that's where we're trying to show our worth and our value, and where can we be of support for different roles. But that regulation is going to be really important for us to have it so that it's it's regulated that this job has to go to rec therapist, this job has to go to a recreation therapy associate, or this job has to go to somebody who has the two year diploma from NSCC, or the degree and the certification from the national standards. So this is where it's going to make the difference for us, but for also people who are accessing our services, they want to get that support from us. And what we can do, it's got to be from where the background comes from, the education.

Blake Hunsley 18:59
Now you've raised something very interesting here is, I would love to hear where you think rec therapy could be most useful in the province that is not currently being employed, specifically thinking where you're working. I'm very happy to hear that we're doing something, finally, to transition people out of the hospital, because I fully understand bed pressure and all that, and I hate the idea of people just being given the boot. Go home. You don't have any support. Historically, we've been terrible at prevention in healthcare in this province, so I would love to hear from the other side, where would rec therapy be useful? Do you think in kind of preventing more illness, more hospitalizations, or just as a social better I

Speaker 1 19:34
love this question. See, it's a fun podcast. I am a big fan, so I would like to see it everywhere. I really would I think that a lot of the skills associated with rec therapy and with people being able to understand how to care for themselves through recreation therapy, I would love to see it more in schools. Have people learn from a young age how to care for themselves. Holistically, because we look at the full picture, it's the cognitive, emotional, social, physical and spiritual. And when we talk spiritual, it's not just church and religion. It's about who you are as a person, your morals, your values, what you believe in. And a lot of times like, those domains are not well understood enough for us to respect them. So when we talk about self care, people think like, Oh, I'm gonna, like, put on a mud mask and do my nails. Beautiful. I love it, but it's holistic. It's all about, how do we care for ourselves? Getting exercise isn't about being skinny or fit. It's about boosting endorphins and your whole wellness. Being social with others boosts your endorphins. It makes you feel good. So all of these things keep us well. And I think if we had more recreation therapy and understanding of what that is in schools, people would have a better understanding long term for the rest of their lives and really know what to do. But then, you know, continuing on through the spectrum. There are a lot of long term care facilities that don't necessarily have a recreation therapist or any kind of recreation therapy associate background there. So that can be tricky as well, because we've got a lot of dementia care behaviors, people who need to maintain their wellness when they're as they age. It would be nice to see that retirement homes don't as far as I'm aware, retirement homes don't have psych therapy. They'll have recreation programs, but not put on by recreation therapy. So I would love to see it there as well. There are some private groups that will do it, like pay out of pocket. I would love to see it on the benefits package, so people pay out of pocket to have that support as well. But often, right now, it's just in, mostly in healthcare. I would love to see it elsewhere to keep building those skills long term.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 21:57
So let's you know, and I love that, like in the community. So when you think about community organizations, we have a lot of community organizations in well, just HRM, right, but all of Nova Scotia, similar to reachability, right? That we're all doing something to assist members in our community, right? Where do you see, you know, rec therapy playing a part in that, like programming.

Speaker 1 22:30
I love that, because you guys run programs here. Actually, you specifically have done this. Yes, and the lovely Marcus and Nick have been working with me to develop a program that we run at West Bedford for our patients to get ready for employment. So like we kind of touched on before, is like when things are fun and we enjoy them, and they really kind of speak to us as a person, we're more likely to do it. So there's a lot of things that people could learn about if we make it something of interest to them, right? Same with schools, you know, you sit there and you listen to a lecture for a long time. It can be really boring. You zone out. You don't really retain much, but teachers are really good at kind of integrating things to be more fun. So we're learning as we go, very Montessori style, but we're working on a program with your team to figure out, how can we help people get ready to work? And I think recreation therapy can really have a part in that as well, for us to figure out how to make it fun. So if we're talking about work skills, even like we have a wonderful community partner, shout out to the cobble Quinn Food Security Network. They're going to help us with doing a cooking program, and the goal of it is, yes, cooking is fun. It's good to learn how to cook different meals, help with nutrition. But also we're looking at ot skills in this group of how can we learn how to cook on our own again, if we have a recent disability now? Right, right? So recreation therapy is involved there, because we're helping with the social skills, and we're helping with the engagement, we're helping make it fun. What are we going to cook today? So it's all these different groups coming together. Recreation Therapy just amplifies it. And I think not that I'm biased, but I think it makes it more successful, yes, right. So I think there's a lot of groups that are out there that are supporting people with different disabilities, or with getting back into communities, or people who are in marginalized community centers and things like that, that rock therapy could really amplify to help those groups, get people more engaged, more you know, help with their wellness, help with connections, help With everything.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 24:39
Really well. That's That's great. I'm so happy to hear that you're already working, doing some work with reachability, because when I really think about, and I love this whole getting people, you know, back into the workplace, right? And I kind of alluded to that even from like, a long term disability or a short term disability, the longer lots of. Statistics, the longer somebody is out of the workplace, the harder it is for them to re entry. In most cases, if it was a physical injury or medical injury, that's already healed, right? But there's usually some anxiety and some fear, all of those things on how to return to the workplace safely and safely from a holistically health perspective. So, and I'm thinking here at reachability, and you know I do, because I'm an external consultant with reachability, I often come in and support some, you know, practice interviewing skills, right? Once they've prepared their resumes. And a good chunk of the clients here all have exceptional resumes. They have great, transferable skills, and even, like during the interview part, like they're able to really talk about what they can do, right? Yeah, but then there's this huge it seems to be this wall that people have hit that they they can't seem to get themselves to apply for a job. So there's some barrier there, right? And I, and I think in many cases, it is the fact of the you know, because now we've drilled down, and some of the people we've you know, since hired here at reachability have also talked to us about it was really the anxiety of either I haven't had to communicate with anybody except myself, right? So even just coming to the program has already been a big deal for them. But how, how will I communicate in the workplace, right? And then the other thing that we've really noticed, and I think that, you know, rec therapy, when you're talking about the cooking program, we've also noticed one of the barriers, you know, for people, okay, is food insecurity, right? So, you know, with providing, like meals here, like at the during programs, we've seen like, a really big uptick, like, you know, you don't often think of something as, you know, having a bowl of soup as, right, like, when you have food. So I like that, like being able to because I really do think that there's people who are coming back to the workplace because they either lost their ability to socialize, right, and so they don't really know how they can't get out of their own way. That's what I would say. Like, sometimes things happen to me and I'm like, I need to get out of my own way, right? I'm in my own head. And the other part is, I think, like being able to look after themselves, like being able to cook and do some of those things, healthy, healthy eating habits, okay, brain function, like, cognition, happy,

Olivia Pliner 27:59
yeah, this is all stuff that rec therapy could help with.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 28:02
I really, I really love this.

Blake Hunsley 28:05
I'm very curious. Because, I mean, you know, yeah, we deal with this, this huge wall people hit. And it is, it's anxiety. I mean, these are, like, you say, these are capable people who have good resumes. They might have a little gap on the resume because they've been out, usually for good reason, but they do have a ton of fear about reentering the workforce. How would you and I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit here. How would you make it fun or enjoyable, or self bolstering something that they want, that they want to get back to?

Olivia Pliner 28:30
I love that, and you can put me on the spot anytime. Excellent. I'm a professional yapper.

Blake Hunsley 28:36
Expect another invite back.

Olivia Pliner 28:39
I am a big fan of exposure therapy, but if we do it in a way that suits them, so it is individualized, of course. So let's say, if somebody's just got a lot of anxiety about applying for jobs, say, right, maybe we start small in a way that maybe is there's really no effect on them. If there's, if it doesn't go well, it doesn't matter. So something like applying to be a cat cuddler at a shelter, right? What's the outcome? You either get to go cuddle cats or you don't. That's okay. So something where it might be something of interest to them, or we give them something that we know for sure is going to be a success. Give them a win. Give them a win. Get that practice. Be like, Look, you put yourself out there. How did you feel during that time? Or you felt some anxiety during it. How did you feel once it was done? How did you feel once you got the result? And then once we have the knowledge that, oh, it was okay, actually, once I did it and got over that hump, I was okay. Then you have that skill and that knowledge to say, I know once I do it, I'm over that hump, it'll be okay. So we'll do it in a way that kind of works for them, that's fun for them, but it gives them that skill. It's all about the skill building through something of interest, something they enjoy.

Blake Hunsley 29:56
You're touching on something that we find is a huge barrier here. When people come in the door. The first question that we ask a lot of our clients are, what are your skills, or what are you good at? And we don't get, I don't know, we get, I don't have any, and it's, I have yet to meet a single person who doesn't have skills. I mean, yeah, transferable skills. We use the video gaming as an as an example. A lot of times like, you have hand eye coordination, time management, you have all these things. So yeah, it's, it's lovely to hear that you're helping people discover those in a fun way, because I really think the lack of belief in your own abilities is one of the biggest challenges. I don't know if it's a regional thing, just here in the Maritimes, we don't believe in ourselves. We're not a cocky people by nature. But like, No, I'm very glad to hear that you're helping people just find fun ways to believe in themselves again.

Olivia Pliner 30:40
Yeah, and I can't believe I haven't touched on it yet, but like, purpose and meaning, feeling those things, people lose that a lot, especially in hospital. It's like a lot of people have come in and they've had Busy, busy lives. They have children, they have families, they have jobs, and they're Go, go, go, go, go, and then the world stops. Everything stops for them, and they're very much at a loss. So we talk a lot about boredom and free time, the differences between boredom and free time and how we utilize our free time. Being bored is okay, but you have free time to do things for you, so we work on that a lot, but when we talk about purpose and meaning, because a lot of people do lose that, and that can leave a bit of a hole in their hearts to feel like, what? What is my purpose anymore? Like I used to work now i can't i. I feel like, you know, I used to be running five kilometers a day, and now I have a hard time walking to the bathroom. It's like that, the emotions take over. And when we hear the team say things like, well, they're refusing to work with us, or they're not wanting to engage. It's like, I think it's a lot of feeling like they can't, feeling like they're failing, feeling like they're not making as much progress as they want. So we give them that purpose and that meaning again, and sometimes it's through volunteering, either, you know, through a group out in community, whether we talk about getting back to work again or sometimes it's like volunteering in facility. I have little tasks that I can give somebody to give them that sense of like, Oh, I gotta go. Like, you have something you need to do. I need to go do this. You have that sense of achievement, the success. I had a purpose today, versus laying in bed and having everyone come to you and make you, know, do things for you. What are you doing for you? And what can you do for others? It feels good. So purpose and meaning are massive, too. It's one of, like my boxes that I check off for people sometimes to say, you know, this is where they're lacking. This is where they need that support to feel like a person again, versus Okay, well, just, do you know, just do your your things that you need to do to get out of hospital, and that's

Blake Hunsley 32:43
that, yeah, feel hollow inside while you're doing it. Yeah,

Olivia Pliner 32:46
it's like, you know what? Sorry, just, just get through it and go home, you know? But then, long term, too, it's like, you without purpose, without meaning. If that's important to them, that's where we get depression and isolation and lack of socializing, because they've lost that. So that's where rec therapy, too, also

Blake Hunsley 33:04
tries to say, So in effect, you are doing prevention already.

Olivia Pliner 33:08
Yes, prevention is huge. We do want to make sure that people we don't work a lot a lot with, like really acutely ill people, because their focus right now is getting better, medically stable. A lot of what we do in those moments. You know, if someone is maybe palate, we are trying to get into palliative care a lot, and we're trying to get into hospice, showing the value we can have to help with quality of life when you reach end of life. We've had some patients where as we know they are palliative, we'll say, you know, kind of what are the things that you'd like in the next little while, and they'll say things like, I really want my nails painted, you know, so we paint their nails, or for comfort, you know, they're in a lot of pain, we might brush their hair or give them a gentle hand massage, put on their favorite music. You know, it's things like that that shows that we can help with the end of life process really boost that quality of life as well, right? I'm off on a tangent again. No, I

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 34:06
think this is important. Yeah, it's the whole

Olivia Pliner 34:09
lifespan really. Rec therapy can help with the prevention. We can help with recovery, and we can help at end of life as well for quality of life, while we're exploring in

Blake Hunsley 34:17
different ways. It can help and just promoting the concept here among some of us who were under educated on the topic, we should talk to since we're almost at the end of February, but we're still technically within it. It's recreation therapy month. I would love to hear from you, because you're clearly a fan and excited. That's great. I would love to hear from you what recreation therapy is, you know, kind of all about and what, what the kind of goals are for recreation therapy month. I assume part of it has to be educating the public and dispelling some myths. Love to hear about those.

Olivia Pliner 34:45
Yes, absolutely. So recreation therapy month has never been something that I've really participated in as much. But this year, I am a member of the Nova Scotia Therapeutic Recreation Association, and they are very big into. It. So they really inspired me to also get into it. So we did have a couple events at work. They hosted a couple events as well that I participated in that were super fun. We went curling, which was really good, and I'm not very good at it, but I had so much fun. And we did networking nights, and there was trivia and a happy hour. It was a lot of fun. The whole goal of us really celebrating recreation therapy month is to bring awareness to what we do. And I think one of the things that a lot of people miss, particularly people we work with that may not see it, is that we look like we're having fun and we are, but there's always a purpose. We always have a goal. There's always a reason for what we're doing, although people can just be laughing and hooting and hollering when we play bocce, but as they're playing bocce, we're explicitly giving each person some guidelines to really push them in recreation therapy of something called flow, where we want to find everyone's flow and it's their equal amount of skill to challenge. If it's too easy for them, it's not fun, and it's not really hitting any goals. If it's too hard, people are more likely to give up. So we want to find that flow where it's like they're really enjoying it because it's, it's the right amount of challenge, but it's also testing them a little bit, so you feel like it's, it's worth putting that effort into so we're constantly doing that, so much that during these times like rec therapy month, we want to show people how much thought we put into stuff. For example, the recreation programmer and I put on a bocce game. I talk about bocce, you have no idea how popular it is. We put on a bocce game for our staff. And during that time, we were explaining how we're trying to achieve flow. We're also trying to, like, challenge people individually based on their needs. So if somebody you know, it's your turn, and I think that it would challenge you just a little bit if you stood up and took three paces back versus sitting down close. So then it's like, we're showing people how, not only can you change games and you can modify them for your own needs, to make it harder or easier or whatever it is you want it to be, but also when things are hard, you can do it. So we'll we'll have people say, you know, put use your non dominant hand, and they'll do it. And they're surprisingly more successful than they thought they would be. And it's to show that if something happens to you, or you're going through something where maybe you're not doing something to the extent you used to do it, it doesn't mean you can't do it. Modifications and adaptations are completely fine to make it so that you can still do things, but to show everyone what it is we do, how much thought we put into things, how much we're trying to build skills that are long term, is really the focus of recreation therapy month, to really highlight all the things that we're trying to do to help people.

Blake Hunsley 37:53
I wonder if there's misconceptions out there, because you know just the name recreation therapy, well, that sounds very fun. So I imagine you must have people who say, Oh, you get to have fun at work all day. How nice for you that don't necessarily understand the depth of thought that goes behind these activities.

Olivia Pliner 38:08
I don't think anyone who knows me at this point would ever they've had the talk.

Olivia Pliner 38:15
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, people will sometimes send me referrals for patients, for things that are not necessarily what the recreation therapy goals are. I don't usually have a problem just saying that's not what we do, and just kind of giving that education to say this is kind of where we do focus. We don't kind of do that. You know, if somebody's exhibiting behaviors, they might say, can you just sit with them for the day? Well, no, I can't sit with them for the day. That's not what we do. However, can we provide engagement for that person that interests them, specifically, that keeps them engaged, so that those behaviors might decrease? Right? If you think about somebody who might have dementia, who's exhibiting some behaviors, if you put them in a chair, facing nothing, doing nothing. What do you think the chances are that a behavior is going to happen? Probably pretty high, but if they're engaged in something that's meaningful to them, the chances of those behaviors happening is less, for sure. So that's where it's like, I can just provide that education for when people say, like, Oh, can you do this thing? It's like, well, that's not rec therapy.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 39:21
It's true. I was thinking that that's a really good example. My mother is in, you know, late stage dementia, and maybe at mid stage, she had somebody in who was like working with her in in she's in a facility. And she they found out, like, you know, from her, apparently, that you know, she loved, you know, listening to the news, right, listening to Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, like you know, the things i. But she has macular degeneration on top of this, right? So I could never understand, like, why does she have the TV on? She can't see it, right? Like, like, what's that about? Well, it was their idea to put that on. She can still hear it. There's nothing wrong with her hearing, right? And it made her feel really good, and it made her feel like she wasn't having these, like, forgetful moments, because she was still in that phase where she knew something was wrong with her memory, but would have good days. And I never really thought about it that way, like, you know, like, the fact of like, well, why would you have the TV on? Like, we can't see it, right? But again, it would be something that would make made her happy. So then it gave her a purpose, and it gave her purpose between specific times each day that she, like, no joke now, like, even though, like, she doesn't know my name or anything, that she knows what time it is to go sit in her chair time and watch TV, right? Like it. And she's so happy during that time.

Blake Hunsley 41:06
Yeah, it makes her feel a bit like herself, her old self again, which sounds like the entire point of this.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 41:11
So I like that. I really like your explanation. And so while we're on the, you know, sort of plugging

Blake Hunsley 41:21
the your promotion

Olivia Pliner 41:25
time. This ad has brought you by

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 41:27
exactly you know. So what? What message you know you talked a little bit about the fact that you're not a regulated body, so you know, on that sort of theme, and anything else you want to add to it, what message would you like to share with policymakers or funders, especially because it's recreation therapy month,

Olivia Pliner 41:44
it is. Yeah, I would love to,

Olivia Pliner 41:48
I would love to say that, you know, as an association, we're working hard to work with the government to become a regulated body. We're doing all of this purely because there's so much value in what we do, we want everyone to have that value. And right now there's risk. There's risk associated with having the title, associated with people who don't necessarily have the right education or training to do the job. There are lots of people who are out there that have the right training to do the job. That's where the focus needs to be. We need to have the right professionals in these jobs so that we can do the job that needs to be done because of the preventative nature taking the weight off the health care system. Let us do that. Let us help people. Let us help the seniors in long term care. Let us help with the behaviors and that people can stay in long term care and they don't have to be that's a whole other pickle. But you know, let us be that support to alleviate the healthcare system, to keep people out of there, but then when they're in there, help get them home successfully. So if they would help us with the regulation, I think that it would make a very big difference in the success rates for people in community. That's fantastic. I have my hands crossed like I'm begging

Blake Hunsley 43:11
policymakers who listen to this show frequently, please listen. Thank you

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 43:17
so and maybe in closing, what you know? What would you give as advice? Okay, for people who are considering this career,

Olivia Pliner 43:33
if you're considering working in recreation therapy, be a member of NSTRA, yes. So there's my plug. For real, though I never really got involved. I've lived in other provinces, so I wasn't here for I haven't been here for many years, many of my working careers working years. But now that I'm involved with the Association and I see how people in this field really support each other, and that we really support the students, and we want to see this field grow successfully together. Everyone is very passionate about us growing that I've been reaching out to rec therapists to be like, can you help me with West Bedford? I'm trying to like, develop this program. What do you think? What's your opinion? And I've been met with so much warmth from all these different recreation therapists in different fields, different areas, hospital, community everywhere. And I was very, very surprised by it. So if people are thinking about working in recreation therapy or going to school for recreation therapy, or even if you're interested in like, what is recreation therapy, if you haven't really understood from all this conversation of what is, but if you have more questions, or you want to, you just want to know more about it, message or reach out to any recreation therapist that you might be able to contact. But also reach out to the association like Nova Scotia, Therapeutic Recreation Association is full of wonderful people. So we love advocating. I'm also the chair for the advocacy community. So you can reach out to advocacy@nstra.info. You can reach out to membership. You can reach out to anyone really from check out the website. See us there. But the more that you connect with us, the more that you can see the world of recreation therapy and what what we're trying to do. So if anyone's interested, please, please, just reach out to us.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 45:25
That's excellent. And I think one thing that you didn't say that I think is important. At the beginning of the session, Olivia talked about how she got into this that in, you know, in high school as a sort of a work placement or a little Co Op. She was thinking she was going to be a psychologist, and she went on, you know, sort of a job shadowing. So, you know, that's another, you know, great opportunity, like, if you're in high school and you're thinking about, you know, what are my options? I'm looking for something similarly in this field, social work, psychology, rec occupational therapy, a great opportunity to reach out to somebody from the Nova Scotia rec therapy Association, yeah, and maybe you'll be able to shadow somebody for a day to get an idea of what they do.

Olivia Pliner 46:21
Yeah, I love when people shadow me.

Blake Hunsley 46:30
I wouldn't have known this was a career option to start with.

Olivia Pliner 46:35
No and like, when I graduated, I'm not gonna tell you the year was a long time ago, but when I graduated, there was, I think, like 30 of us in the class, and now there's like, a wait list to get in. So it's much more popular. It's definitely booming. But we're also, I mean, part of the board too, is like, we're trying to advocate for more roles in different places. So like, we're making more roles. There's more people graduating. Like, we're really trying to, like, show ourselves here. So the more that you connect with other rec therapists, reach out, talk to us about what's going on, the more you can kind of get into this world. And it's, it's a wonderful

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 47:09
world, awesome. Wow, thank you.

Blake Hunsley 47:14
Oh, it's you today.

Blake Hunsley 47:17
Don't worry. I love to talk, but it's scripted as you today. I'm leaving this in, by the way,

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 47:24
just to show our level of profession why I'm not saying anything, because I know, like whatever I say, He will not take out. So on that note, thank you so much, Olivia, thanks for listening to within our reach. Season Two of our podcast is made possible thanks to the support of the Province of Nova Scotia, and the support for Culture Program, if you have feedback on an episode, an idea for future episode topics, or if you're interested in appearing as a guest, even after you know that it's not going to be edited, write us at withinourreach@reachability.org. Thank you very much Olivia for joining us

Olivia Pliner 48:00
today. Thank you both very much for having me

Blake Hunsley 48:02
and happy recreation therapy month.

Olivia Pliner 48:04
thank you!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai