Supported Leisure Project

SCE LifeWorks has partnered with research and education institutions and government and community organizations to discover and demonstrate important information and best practises in the field.

Purpose:
To assess the effectiveness of a leisure education program (see LifeWorks store for manual) on improving access to community recreation and leisure activities for people with mental disabilities who are involved in supported employment. At the same time, to assess the effect of such a program on levels of leisure satisfaction and community adjustment of these individuals.

Intervention:


The leisure education intervention consisted of three phases which were as follows:

Phase 1 – Leisure Awareness & Decision Making
Each participant took part in leisure education sessions for the purpose of increasing their awareness and understanding of leisure, leisure options in the community and decision-making skills necessary for leisure.

Phase 2 – Person-Centred Planning
Each participant and his or her family and other significant individuals took part in a PATH (Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope, Pearpoint, O’Brien & Forest, 1993) planning meeting. This planning tool is a dynamic process which gathers a person’s support network to assist in outlining a person’s dreams, goals, action plans, and required resources. The focus of the PATH in this project was to identify a leisure plan.

Phase 3 – Leisure Action Planning & Plan Implementation
Participants learned about planning for their own leisure, initiating leisure preferences and monitoring their own leisure. Participants were also supported in implementing the leisure action plan identified at the PATH meeting.

Results:
·      9 out of 10 participants who received the intervention showed an increase in overall leisure satisfaction from pre to post-test. Analysis using a paired t-test fouond this change to be significant.

·      Participants increased their ability to complete the behavioural objectives outlined in the curriculum-based measures from 50.04% at pre-test to 96.5% at post-test.

·      All participants indicated that they were having more fun as a result of the leisure education program and 6 individuals indicated that the program helped them make new friends.

·      Parents indicated that they felt it took too long to complete phase 1 while participants felt that this time was important to very important.

·      Results suggest that leisure education combined with personal futures planning can help adults with mental disabilities achieve greater leisure satisfaction and increase community adjustment in areas of recreation, leisure and friendships.

A number of recommendations have been identified as a result of reviewing all of the data from this study. 

· Later life planning should be initiated with adults with mental disabilities between 30 and 40 years of age, rather than between ages 50 and 60. This will reduce the problem of trying to help individuals plan for life changes while they are experiencing declining health.

· Instruction on decision-making and planning must be conducted with people with mental disabilities early on in their lives. Such training should take place in schools, residences and in vocational settings. This will ensure that individuals with mental disabilities have the skill to engage in transition planning for all phases of life, including later life.

· Funding for individuals in day and residential services should be more flexible, so that older adults who choose to have less structured daily activities can have some of their day time needs met through residential services.

· Family Services should consider targetting key agencies in Winnipeg to provide broad-based supports for older adults. These agencies should receive funding to support these specialized services. As the needs of this population grow, these agencies could then become consultants to other agencies needing to provide such services.

·  Family Services should appoint a minimum of one Family Services Worker who is responible for coordination of later lfie options for individuals identified as needing support in Winnipeg. The job description of this person could be modeled after the job description of the Retirement Planning Coordinator for the Supported Retirement Project.

· Service providers must work to enhance communication between residential and day service programs. One method of enhancing communication might be through the creation of a coordinating committee on aging.

· Training of service providers for people with mental disabilities related to the later life needs of older adults with mental disabilites must be ongoing. In addition, similar training must continue for generic service providers for older adults.