Purposeful Paws Recreational Therapy

Curriculum Overview

Curriculum Overview

Purposeful Paws Recreational Therapy is an eight-week evidence-based curriculum grounded in the Activity Theory of Aging. This program focuses on fostering relations, providing the opportunity to make decisions, and clarifying one’s personal values. This program occurs once a week for eight weeks. These sessions encourage active participation, relationship building, and the increase of quality of life and well-being. Each sixty-minute session focuses on utilizing the socially assistive robots in a new way all while working collaboratively with other members of the community. This curriculum emphasizes teamwork and decision making. After providing meaningful activities, creative outlets, and a supportive environment, the opportunity for clients to build their communication skills, and supporting engagement in structured programming beyond Purposeful Paws, it is anticipated that participants want to continue to engage with their community after the conclusion of the program.

Watch the Introduction Video Below

Abigail Fleischmann, MS, CTRS

About the Curriculum Developer

Abigail Fleischmann completed her Bachelor of Science in Recreational Therapy at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse (UWL) in August 2023. She then became a Certified Therapeutic Recreation
Specialist (CTRS) in September 2023 and completed her Master of Science in Recreational Therapy at UWL in May 2024. She has experience working with both children and adults with various disabilities in community settings as well as individuals with neurocognitive diagnoses in a memory care unit.

As an active member of the Health Science Interprofessional Research Center, Abigail was given the opportunity to work hands on with Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) where her passion for utilizing them was formed. She has since conducted research using SARs in a neurocognitive support group as well as with fellow students at a recreational therapy student conference.

Curriculum Training

Training Overview:

Take the Pre-Training Quiz
Watch the Training Video
Review the Fidelity Manual
Take the Post-Training Quiz

Training Quizzes:

Click the link to access the quiz

Pre-Training Quiz: Click HERE
Post-Training Quiz: Click HERE

The Fidelity Manual: Click Here to Download

Watch the Training Video Below

Client Assessment

Assessment Description/Explanation

Engagement in Meaningful Activities Survey:

The "Engagement in Meaningful Activities Survey” is a validated assessment tool developed by Bluma Goldberg, E. Sharon Brintnell, and Jack Goldberg to measures the relationship between the engagement in meaningful activities and overall quality of life. This assessment is a 12-item questionnaire that uses a 4-point scale ranging from “Rarely” to “Always” related to how often an individual takes part in the given prompts. The scale remains unadapted from its original form.

General Happiness Scale:

The "General Happiness Scale” is a validated assessment tool developed by Sonja Lyubomirsky and Heidi S. Lepper to measure an individual’s subjective level of happiness. This 4-item questionnaire utilizes a 7-point scale, with prompts at each end that correspond with the initial sentence fragments, allowing participants to rate their agreement. The scale remains unadapted from its original form.

Assessment Download and Upload

Click Here to download the Engagement in Meaningful Activities Survey.
Click Here to download the General Happiness Scale.

Program Evaluation

Program Evaluation/Description

There will be a final evaluation at the end of the program to assess the overall program performance. As the author of this curriculum, I am dedicated to providing the highest quality of care to clients through the fidelity manual. The quality assurance system is designed to ensure that the Purposeful Paws Recreational Therapy curriculum can evolve and improve over time. The CTRS must be knowledgeable of the tasks that need to be followed and completed in order to meet expectations and maintain its fidelity.

Participant Satisfaction Survey

There will be a final participant survey that the participants will complete at the last session. This survey asks questions regarding the overall experience, modifications, and if the goals were met helping to determine if the program was successful for the participants.

Program Evaluation

Click Here to download.

Participant Satisfaction Survey

Click Here to download.

Research Poster

This poster was presented by Abigail Fleischmann at the 2024 UW-L Research & Creativity Symposium.

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