Recreation Therapist

Recreation Therapist (6 Months)

Openings: 1
Division: Community Support Services
Full/Part Time/Casual: Full Time
Program: Transitional Care Bed Unit
Regular/Temporary: Temporary
Location: Hamilton-First Place
Union: Non-Union
Hours of Work: 8am-4pm (75 hours biweekly)
Posting Date: October 30, 2025
Closing Date: Until Filled
Wages: $26.97 - $49.63

Position Summary

The Recreational Therapist is responsible for planning, promoting, implementing and evaluating person‑centered recreation and leisure programs which support the physical, emotional, cognitive and social well‑being of our clients. This role is also responsible for delivering recreational program reports, input, and/or feedback to the Manager – Therapies, and for running recreational programs within a budget framework.

The Recreational Therapist supports the Manager – Therapies in their strategic and operational goals/initiatives for this role, as well as supporting SJHC’s Clinical Manager - TCB Program through the delivery of recreational programming as required by various client needs, contract requirements, and/or external stakeholder expectations. The Recreational Therapist works collaboratively with other program staff members to ensure the delivery of high‑quality client care and effective/efficient functionality of the program.

Core Duties and Responsibilities

- Conducts therapeutic recreation assessments to identify clients’ strengths, interests and barriers to participation
- Develops and delivers individualized and group‑based recreation programs which support physical, emotional, cognitive, and social well‑being
- Effectively collaborates with inter‑disciplinary team members with the goal of integrating recreational goals into the overall care planning
- Plans various recreational activities in keeping with client/group needs
- Positively promotes recreational activities within the location
- Creates recreational activity calendars and posts within the location
- Evaluates overall recreational programming, adjusting or improving as needed
- Maintains accurate documentation of assessments, interventions and outcomes
- Provides various statistics, metrics and data as necessary or as requested
- Coordinates external activity service providers (e.g. entertainers)
- Collaborates with Purchasing Coordinator in the procurement of necessary supplies for the recreational programming
- Tracking and reporting recreational activity costs, reporting costs to Manager – Therapies and/or Program Managers on an on‑going and regular basis
- Monitors, evaluates and reports on program effectiveness
- Adapts recreational programming based on client feedback and clinical outcomes
- Responsible for ensuring recreational activities are planned within a pre‑determined budget allotment
- Other duties as required

Core Competencies

- Regularly demonstrates our mission, vision and values:

1. Support compassionate care, faith and diversity

2. Deliver quality care, pursue and share knowledge, respect diversity, remain faithful

3. Commit to working everyday with dignity, respect, service, justice, responsibility and enquiry

- Ability to work collaboratively with others; sharing expertise and drawing on the expertise of others
- Actively promotes a healthy, supportive and inclusive work environment
- Proactively contributes to initiatives, supporting and encouraging positive change
- Ability to engage in effective problem solving, possess logic and analytical thinking
- Skilled at thinking about creative solutions to complex problems
- Solid team‑based approach to everyday work activities
- Superior communication skills both verbal and written, with an excellent customer service mindset
- Positive and professional, with a “can do” attitude
- Willingness to regularly go the extra mile and actively support co‑workers/direct reports
- Ability to demonstrate client‑centered focus in all activities
- Strong abilities in program planning, implementation, evaluation
- Proven budgetary skills
- Superior organizational and planning skills
- Proven ability to be detail oriented
- Maintaining ongoing compliance to corporate policies and procedures, health and safety regulations, and relevant external standards
- Participating fully in both internal and external training requirements
- Participating fully in corporate quality initiatives
- Maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of all personal health records (including both client and personal), and following all the privacy and confidentiality requirements of any and all electronic medical record systems used

Qualifications

- College level recreational diploma with adequate related work experience—required
- University level recreational or related degree—preferred
- Current certification with a recognized body (e.g. Therapeutic Recreation Ontario—TRO, National Counsel for Therapeutic Recreation Certificate—NCTRC)—required
- 1‑3 years of related working experience—required
- Current First Aid Certificate—preferred
- Current CPR Certificate—preferred
- Training in Gentle Persuasion Approach or other non‑violent crisis intervention—preferred
- Experience working in a unionized environment—asset
- Experience working in Dementia care—preferred
- Excellent understanding of MS office software including Excel spreadsheets—preferred
- Previous experience working in an Integrated Community Care model or hospital setting—preferred
- Familiar with Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software—preferred

St. Joseph’s Home Care is an equal opportunity employer, committed to equity, inclusiveness, and diversity across all our programs, practices, facilities, and team. AI is not used in our recruitment processes for the selection of candidates.

If you require any accommodations during the recruitment process, such as alternate formats of materials or accessible meeting rooms, please inform the hiring manager before your interview. Should you wish to conduct your interview in French, kindly contact our head office to arrange this in advance.

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