Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

Publication Date

11-17-1978

Abstract

During World War I the American Red Cross initiated a program of organized recreation services for patients in military hospitals. Following the precedent established by Clara Barton who affirmed the use of recreation activities for servicemen "to counteract the baleful influence of liquor-selling resorts,” Red Cross recreators applied the pliable medium of recreation to achieve results other than the recreation experience itself. During World War II, when the Red Cross employed nearly 2,000 recreators in military hospitals, recreation specialists developed specific programs and techniques to facilitate the rehabilitation of patients in various diagnostic classifications. Before the recreators had fully systematized their methods and developed accountability procedures, however, they lost the endorsement of the Red Cross for continuation of their efforts. Red Cross officials denounced the use of recreation activities to achieve treatment objectives and asserted that recreation should be provided only as an end in itself. The Red Cross had given considerable impetus to the growth of the young therapeutic recreation profession. After the forties, however, many practitioners, who were struggling to refine the therapeutic application of recreation and to elevate the status of the profession, viewed the anti-therapy posture of the Red Cross as reactionary. Although Red Cross officials claimed that their stand was based upon their perceptions of the nature of the recreation experience, the documents in the National Archives and in the Red Cross Archives do not wholly support that contention. Instead, they reveal that this decision was made against a background of circumstances, all of which were unfavorable to the operation of a highly individualized, treatment oriented program. In 1944 Red Cross recreators were charged by Army occupational therapists with incompetence in the performance of services which the occupational therapists perceived to be within their domain. In response to these charges the Red Cross advanced the opinion that their recreation services were extended only to provide diversion, whereas, the services of occupational therapists were rendered as therapy. The most adamant statement against recreation therapy was issued by the Red Cross after the staff had been reduced, to accommodate budgetary cuts, from 1,800 to 330 recreators. With fewer than three recreators per 1,000 patients the Red Cross was unable to provide individualized, therapeutic recreation services to all patients. Because of the lengthy period of hospitalization characteristic of treatment in military facilities during the 1940s, Red Cross officials were reluctant to deny diversional recreation opportunities to any hospitalized serviceman. Not until after the Vietnam conflict were Red Cross recreators able to regain the support of leaders in the organization to conduct a program directed to achieving treatment objectives. Limited progress was gained until 1976 when the Red Cross Board of Governors, confronted with a large budget deficit, voted to discontinue recreation services in military hospitals. This dissertation reviews the development, the achievements, and the shortcomings of the Red Cross recreation program in military hospitals throughout its fifty-eight years of existence.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Physical Education, Sports and Exercise Science

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences

First Committee Member (Chair)

Frank Edward Papcsy

Second Committee Member

Lawrence Bernard Rosenfeld

Third Committee Member

Elmer Arthur Scholer

Fourth Committee Member

Robert Micali

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