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Therapeutic Recreation Program Description
The Therapeutic Recreation Program at West Ridge Academy was created to provide a sequenced curriculum of events with an emphasis on outdoor adventure to encourage a change of heart for students on their quest for hope and healing. The major components of this curriculum are: Leisure Education, Ropes Course, Camping Trips, and Quest.
Leisure Education
For students to leave West Ridge Academy empowered with the tools associated with hope and healing, it is essential that they understand the importance of leisure in their lives. Many of our students came to West Ridge Academy because of their inappropriate use of leisure time. While here, students find great power in education and the acquisition of new skills and hobbies that will help them replace old behaviors that may not have been conducive to a happy lifestyle. Leisure education is a program consisting of a variety of six week courses taught by staff and volunteers of West Ridge Academy. Students choose from a variety of interesting courses, and every Tuesday for six weeks they are taught the skills necessary to continue exploring that leisure pursuit. It is our goal to use leisure education to enhance the quality of life of our students, to help students identify their leisure values, attitudes and needs, to help students identify and use the personal, social and community resources available for their leisure, and to improve mental, physical, social and emotional development through broad based leisure experiences.
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Ropes Course
The ropes course is one the greatest tools we have to teach our students the character traits necessary to achieve hope and healing during their enrollment at West Ridge Academy. Each month we take every cottage through a three week series of low and high ropes course events focused on one of the following topics: Trust, Communication, Teamwork and Problem Solving. Throughout this sequenced ropes course curriculum, students work individually and as a team on tasks that are proven to encourage these traits while also inspiring courage and self-confidence. The successful completion of these tasks prepares the students for their campouts, which continue to build upon these character traits
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Camping Description
The students of West Ridge Academy who graduate the program go on at least two campouts with our Therapeutic Recreation department. These campouts are designed to provide the students with an opportunity to apply the therapeutic principles they have learned at West Ridge Academy in a natural setting. These campouts also provide opportunities for our students to obtain school credit in earth science. In addition, this outdoor environment provides an excellent setting to learn about natural and logical consequences, and to begin to understand the dangers of immediate gratification. Students also acquire new skills, gain an appreciation for the outdoors. On these campouts students travel throughout the state of Utah and experience a variety of beautiful settings. This year our Therapeutic Recreation Department will spend sixty-seven days camping with our students in ten different locations.
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Quest
The final phase of the Therapeutic Recreation curriculum is a special campout reserved for the upcoming graduates referred to as Quest. While Quest has a variety of locations, it always follows the same basic format designed to push the students physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Quest begins at sunset as the students embark on a night hike that ranges from eight to twelve miles, and lasts late into the night. Throughout this hike the students hold on to a rope to encourage teamwork and creative problem solving. The following day consists of a variety of other teamwork activities including rafting, repelling, 
canyoneering, or additional hiking. Efforts are made by licensed Recreational Therapists to ensure that each challenging activity has a specific therapeutic goal in mind while focusing on the following four character building concepts: Trust, Communication, Teamwork, and Problem Solving. Solos are another critical part of the Quest experience. At some point during Quest, students go into the wilderness on their own for a period of at least twenty-four hours. During this solo period the students are encouraged to reflect on all of their experiences at West Ridge Academy and returning home while answering journal questions. During the last night of Quest, Recreational Therapists visit each student individually and spend time processing the aforementioned events. While this is one of our most difficult adventures, it is also one of our most rewarding trips. Feedback from students is overwhelmingly positive concerning their quest experience, and parents have the opportunity to join with their children in this difficult but rewarding experience as we send each of them a DVD with a compilation of the pictures, video footage, and journal readings of their children.
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