A cross-cultural critique of newer therapeutic recreation practice models: The self-determination and enjoyment enhancement model, Aristotelian good life model, and the optimizing lifelong health through therapeutic recreation model

* People do not share a single measure of normal behavior.

* Individuals are not the basic building blocks of society or therapy.

* Clients understand abstractions (e.g., leisure) in differing ways than therapeutic recreation specialists.

* Dependence and interdependence is a value held by certain clients.

* Clients are helped more by culturally appropriate support systems than by formal therapy.

* Clients rely on circular thinking instead of linear thinking.

* A cultural history and assessment is relevant within a practice model.

Furthermore, therapeutic recreation practice models could be developed from research and theories regarding health, wellness, and quality of life drawn from diverse academic and cultural fields. Academic fields such as anthropology, cultural studies, family ecology, feminist studies, First Nation studies, natural resources management, philosophy, and sociology offer knowledge regarding differing concepts of health, wellness, and disabilities. For example, Machlis, Force, and Burch's (1997), human ecosystem framework provides an interdisciplinary understanding of human development from an ecological and environmental perspective. Social variables that influence human behavior include: social institutions (e.g., education), social order (e.g., social norms), social cycles (e.g., individual), cultural systems (e.g., beliefs), socioeconomic resources (e.g., capital), and natural resources (e.g., land). Additionally, understanding health, disabilities, or mental disorders from a sociological perspective (e.g., Eaton, 2001; Moore & Sinclair, 1995) would move therapeutic recreation specialists toward developing practice models that highlight the social contexts and variables that influence the lives of clients.

Embrace Multicultural Perspectives at the Individual and Organizational Level so that Cross-Cultural Therapeutic Recreation Practice can be Developed

To enhance the two future directions stated above, therapeutic recreation specialists and organizations need to gain cross-cultural competencies. Peregoy and Dieser (1997) developed a two-phases multicultural curriculum oriented toward therapeutic recreation practitioners and students. The first phase is oriented toward gaining an understanding of one's own culture. To do this, therapeutic recreation specialists should gain awareness of attitudes and beliefs of their own culture, knowledge about their own cultures, and articulate multicultural skills within their own culture. For example, therapeutic recreation specialists can learn to identify the cultural assumptions of strategies used, such as identifying cultural assumptions of different therapeutic recreation practice models. The second step involves gaining an understanding of other cultures. To accomplish this, therapeutic recreation specialists need to develop awareness of attitudes and beliefs regarding differing cultures, knowledge about other cultures, and demonstrate multicultural skills pertaining to people from diverse backgrounds. For example, in regard to the SDEE model, therapeutic recreation specialists can learn to identify differences concepts of self, self-determination, and attributions.