Recreational therapist uses sports as rehabilitation

For Anita O'Brien's patients, a disability means possibility.

As the manager of the SportsNet program at the Rochester Rehabilitation Center, recreational therapist O'Brien, 39, helps patients who've suffered from debilitating injuries and disabilities make physical and mental progress through sports and recreational activities. Cycling, swimming, golfing — no activity is impossible. "We take a sport, an activity, and make it an experience," she said

For most of O'Brien's patients getting involved in sports might never have happened without the help of recreational therapy. Even patients in wheelchairs are able to play competitive sports. The SportsNet program organizes wheelchair basketball and power wheelchair soccer leagues so people who've never tasted the thrill of competitive sports finally can.

Using sports equipment specially modified for people with disabilities — such as three wheel bicycles, sled hockey and a sail boat equipped with a sip and puff mechanism — recreational therapy is different from traditional physical therapy. "If someone comes in with a knee injury, a physical therapist will help them recoup their leg strength and we use adaptive equipment to help them with their life," O'Brien said.

As O'Brien facilitates her patients' progress, she says the most fulfilling part of her job is seeing their faces light up. "People that have acquired vision impairments to almost total blindness that play golf, you can just tell — they hit the ball and you can just sense their exuberance," she said.

Originally from Georgia, O'Brien completed her master's degree in recreation and leisure from the University of Georgia and moved to Rochester in 2000. But her path to recreational therapy — which is a field expected to grow as the country's population ages — wasn't one she pursued without a little intuitive guidance from her mentor. "A mentor of mine told me, 'I was at a pool the other day with my kids, and I saw you — you were helping a person in the pool that had a disability,' " she said. "He was absolutely right."

 
Anita O'Brien, 39, is the manager of the SportsNet program at the Rochester Rehabilitation Center. (KATHARINE SIDELNIK staff photographer)

O'Brien began working for the Rochester Rehabilitation Center in early 2009. The program, which depends on funding from private grants and foundations, serves many people who have had brain injuries, accidents or developmental disabilities such as cerebral palsy. "You have to believe therapeutic recreation is making a difference," O'Brien said. "And there's a sense of pride they walk away with."democratandchronicle.com