Director of Therapeutic Recreation

Overview

The Director of Therapeutic Recreation is responsible for the development and programming of enriching activities for the residents at Catholic Eldercare's 170-bed Care Center. This position also supervises the life enrichment team, coordinating schedules, creating calendars, and communicating effectively across departments. This position also works with the Pastoral Care team to ensure residents' spiritual needs are met.   

Responsibilities

• Develop, plan and direct the overall operation of the Therapeutic Recreation Department in accordance with current federal, state and local standards and guidelines. Create an on-going program of activities that are designed to meet, in accordance with the comprehensive assessment, the interests, emotional, physical and psychosocial well-being of each resident.
• Manage, supervise and direct full time and part-time Therapeutic Program staff, including: hiring, scheduling, training, performance evaluations. Knowledge of resident Care Planning, MDS, progress notes, and all documentation requirements in the setting.
• Coordinate musicians, TR volunteers, daily, monthly, seasonal and special events- plan, decorate, organize, publicize and implement. Ability to multi-task, and able to think “outside the box.”
• Responsible for supervision of employees including: hiring, scheduling, departmental orientation, training, performance evaluation, disciplinary action and performance issues, termination of employment, and paperwork completion.
• Prepare department budget and monitor to assure that budget remains on target. 
• Coordinates and evaluates programming, taking inventory and ordering supplies, working with third party vendors and volunteers, and ensuring quality as part of the quality improvement team. 
• Meet with staff weekly for the purpose of disseminating new information, working on program planning, team building and general department information.
• Attends care conferences and programming as needed.
• Responsible for the candy cart inventory and bank account.
• Responsible for staying abreast of new regulations and trends pertaining to Therapeutic Recreation.
• Presents and updates the “Memory Loss” segment at monthly General Orientation.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Acitivity Director Certification in Recreational Therapy, CTRS, OTR, or COTA certifcation required.
• Previous experience working with older adults.
• Previous managerial experience, preferred
• Demonstrate aptitude for personnel supervision and management skills. 
• Ability to organize
• Set priorities for team
• Handle stressful and/or emergency situations. 
• Skill in communicating and interacting with all categories of personnel.    
• Work as a team member and adapt to changes in work assignments to meet resident and/or staffing needs