Washington State Therapeutic Recreation Association (WSTRA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and representing recreation therapists in Washington state.
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WSTRA holds annual conventions in Washington state, alternating between the west coast in the Seattle area, and Eastern Washington, such as Spokane, WA and Cheney, WA. The 2013 convention had over 90 paying recreation therapy professional attendees over the course of the three-day weekend.
History
WSTRA was formed due to the merger of four Washington state recreation therapy organizations, Washington Recreational Therapy Association, Inland Northwest Chapter of the American Therapeutic Recreation Association, the first chapter affiliate of ATRA, Puget Sound Chapter of the American Therapeutic Recreation Association, also known as Puget Sound Therapeutic Recreation Association (PSTRA), and Therapeutic Recreation Rounds of Seattle. WSTRA incorporated as a non-profit in 2007, and in 2009 was granted 501(c)(6) status.
Accomplishments
While ATRA provides professional certification, there is no national government licensing body for Recreation Therapists in the USA. WSTRA pursued efforts to convince the Washington State Department of Health, to create a registration option known as the Washington State Recreational Therapist Registration in 2003 through passage of the Washington State bill Chapter 18.230 RCW "Recreation Therapy", through efforts begun under PSTRA in 1995. Among other areas, the bill states that a person cannot call oneself a recreation therapist without being registered with the state.While Washington state has the weakest form of professional regulation with only registration, California is only slightly stronger with title protection. Recreation Therapy Registration is not as strong as state licensing, but ongoing efforts are underway by WSTRA to lobby the state legislature to pass recreation therapy licensing requirement bills as has been accomplished in only 4 states so far:
According to their 2013 convention presentation, WSTRA is currently pursuing efforts to convince Washington state to provide licensing for recreation therapists.
The outdoor portion of the WSTRA 2013 convention included training in adaptive approaches and assistive technology for various activities including:
The Rock climbing modification included simulations of blindness, deafness, lower limb paralysis, and implementing adaptive techniques to allow individuals with such disabilities to still participate in these activities through training of the recreation therapy specialists and modified equipment, modified harness and hoist for rock climbing example, or arm pedals instead of leg pedals for adaptive bicycling.