At the Veterans, Multi-Purpose Center, Recreation Therapy is considered a Holistic health care program designed to provide therapeutic outdoor activities to assist in maintaining or improving the health status, functional capabilities, promoting recovery treatment, and ultimately quality of life for Veterans, their families and civilian children and adults.
Getting outside makes coming home from war easier for our military service members, veterans, and their families. Even if returning service members do not have a physical or mental health injury, most, families or veterans, will still struggle with coming back into their families or society to a routine which is very different from war. The level of struggle will vary between families and individuals, but outdoor activities can be universally applied for all individual veterans, military families and especially children, for ensuring success in integration, employment, and education. Outdoor activities may take on additional importance for those returning with physical or mental health injuries that require adaptations due to a loss or limited use of a limb or traumatic brain injury. We know from repeated testimony that increased confidence, family and social connections, learning how to live with a new physical adaptation, improved mental health, and even recovery from addiction, are attributed to time spent in the outdoors by veterans and military families.