David Austin's Book

Therapeutic Recreation: Processes and Techniques (6th edition) by Dr. David Austin was released earlier this year. It is one of my personal favorite books in our profession.

I had purchased a copy of this book as soon as it was released and just purchased a 2nd copy of the book at the Vendors section at the American Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA) conference.

I may give one away as a door-prize for my mailing list soon: http://www.dannypettry.com/Courses.htm

I encourage people to become life-long learners and I highly recommend for all recreational therapists to get a copy of David Austin’s new book.

Here is an interesting story:

I first started working as a recreational therapist in 2002. One of the female staff was bragging that she had graduated about 10-years before me and called me “a newbie,” since I was just starting in the profession. I realize that she did have a decade of experience over me. So, naturally, I wanted to learn from her.

However, I realized that she had a 1st edition of Dr. Austin’s Therapeutic Recreation: Processes and Techniques on the shelf in her office. I offered to let her read my 4th edition, which I had used in college. She laughed and said, “I’m out of school now. I don't need to read.”

Since then, I’ve purchased the 5th edition and recently as you already know the 6th edition.

I believe she was making a big mistake for not continuing her education and learning. She didn't maintain her certification because it was "not-required." She said that she wanted to save money. I hate to hear that.

Here are my comments:

College degrees become outdated. Think of it this way. Here an an example: A person with a degree in computers from 1979 is a lot different from a recent 2009 graduate with a degree in computers. This is especially true if the person who graduated in ’79 had not kept up to date on recent advances in computers.

Continuing education is important for any profession to help a person to have current knowledge and skills needed to practice. Our profession has set a standard for recreational therapists to maintain and improve their knowledge. They're required to earn 50 hours of continuing education (CE) in five years. It's not about earning the credits. It's about gaining knowledge.

It’s not about the re-certification. It’s about learning, growing, and becoming the best professional that you can be. I think people should stive to earn more than 50 hours of CE. I even think a person should read books and take classes just for the fun of it.

If you’ve not done so already, I highly recommend for you to get a current copy of Dr. David Austin’s book.

You can get it at this link:

http://www.sagamorepub.com/detail.lasso?ID=480