Leisure Skill Instruction: We encourage patients to explore past or new recreation interests. We offer opportunities to try adaptive equipment and techniques, discuss activity modification, and learn about available resources.
Our weekend camping trips, water-skiing clinics, rafting and fishing excursions, are among the hands-on learning situations available to patients who enjoy the outdoors. For those with artistic leanings, our pottery studio, woodworking shop, photography darkroom and space for painting and other crafts helps patients learn new hobbies or rediscover old ones.
Other activities can include basketball, power soccer, quad rugby, tennis, handcycling, snow skiing, weight training, billiards, bowling, ping pong, swimming, scuba diving, jet skiing, all terrain vehicles, boating, fishing, hiking, hunting, riflery, horseback riding, gardening, lawn care, landscaping, indoor plants, drama, dancing, needlework, singing, musical instruments, video games, cards, reading, board games, and computers.
Community Reintegration Outings:
Our patient outings to places such as movies, museums, sporting events, shopping malls, grocery stores, the airport, rafting, fishing, bowling, fitness centers, and the botanical gardens, are designed to help individuals adjust to their disability outside the hospital's walls and go back to their communities as quickly, independently and smoothly as possible.
Shepherd Center's outings test an individuals' abilities and independence in real-life situations and allows time to practice skills such as wheelchair maneuvering in a crowd and around barriers, learning how to direct others when assistance is needed, safety, and coping with public misconceptions. For patients with cognitive issues, our specialists also address money management and feeding during the outings.
We also encourage patients to use evenings and weekends as time to pursue their leisure interests as much as possible. Shepherd Center also offers Saturday-night movies, Sunday-afternoon social and educational programs, and board games, movies and video games for patients to check out.
