Has anyone here taken rehab studies as a major? I’m thinking of ways I could incorporate dance and my preexisting art knowledge into some sort of a career in injurt/disease/mental health recovery. Is this a realistic goal to work towards in college? I literally have no clue, it just sounds cool to me.
And for anyone who has taken rehab studies as a major, how rigorous is the coursework? Would you say you’re studying full-time, or is there a good amount of time to be social and play video games and join clubs and whatnot? I have a gazillion hobbies that I don’t want to lose lol
Are you talking about eventually working as a physical therapist? Or more like an athletic trainer/PT aide/assistant which does not require graduate degrees, certification, etc.?
still deciding. i’ve gone to an art therapy (mental health) program before and was thinking about opening something similar, but incorporating dance as physical strengthening for kiddos recovering from various things. not sure if that would fall under physical therapy or social work, I’d rather not go to graduate school but I’m open to it.
My insurance plan won’t pay for any services which are not from a licensed provider. So PT after an injury, OT for rehab after surgery, etc. You want aromatherapy? You’ll be paying out of pocket.
For kids services- some are paid for by school systems if the services are part of the kids 504 plan or similar; some will be paid by the family’s health insurance. But some school systems (I’m going to guess most) will not pay for an unlicensed provider. So equine therapy (horseback riding and animal care)-- sometimes covered for a kid with cerebral palsy or similar, but provided by a stable with specially trained therapists. You can’t just sign your kid up for horseback riding lessons and submit the bill and get your HMO to pay for it.
See where I’m going? Figure out which type of services is likely to have the most robust options for parents to pay for your services. It is VERY hard to make a living if someone sends their kid once or twice by then has to drop you because the costs are prohibitive.
A neighbor of mine operates a very successful pediatric OT program. She is licensed (grad school) as are all the people she employs. She bought her own space and has outfitted it to the max so she can handle virtually any child who gets referred. She did hospital based OT for a while but is pretty entrepreneurial and prefers owning a business.
So take some time to explore the licensing requirements for various branches of the Allied Health field before you get too far along with a major/minor. Some fields are great-- and some leave its practitioners trying to stitch together a living…
I love the idea but as @blossom states, you gotta get paid.
PTs that were dancers treating dancers, cheer etc is already done but saying that it’s still a nice niche market. Check out IADAMS. Many allied health go and learn with them.
But what I do like is your “out of the box” idea’s. Discuss with a counselor or college advisor. Sometimes meshing interest can lead to some discovery of taking a different approach. Google the terms together for an occupation and see what comes up.
It also sounds cool to me. Take it one step further and see what you can find. Many very successful people create their own paths forward and create a niche. If find something interesting report back.
I don’t think “rehabilitation studies” is a widely-recognized major; it sounds to me like an umbrella for a pre-professional curriculum that doesn’t confer any real credential of its own, but prepares students for grad programs in PT, OT, etc. (If so, this means that it will have a lot of the same “weeder” courses that premeds take.)
What you’re talking about sounds like a Recreation Therapy major might work; that does lead to a credential, and it might be a good field for what you want.
Slippery Rock U. could be a good one to look at for example curricula. They have a rec therapy major and also a dance program offering a BA, BFA, and minor, and also extensive art programs. There’s also a minor in adaptive physical activity that is popular with dance majors.
You might look into child life therapy. I work in pediatrics and the CLTs focus on play and activities with the kids. Sometimes it’s just to get them out of their room or to help get them through a procedure with comforting toys.
thanks so much!! And yeah, money is gonna be the big issue, I don’t know a lot about running a business or what licensing would look like so it’ll be a big project for sure haha.
yeah, i think a lot of them end up either going towards PT or end up working in mental health rehab centers/drug and alcohol addiction recovery. It seems like a pretty broad field from what I’ve heard! And I’ll definitely look into recreation therapy, that sounds cool!
I’m not sure of the full scope of the field but I work at an in-patient pediatric facility, also a long term care ped facility. Both utilize CLTs. They are there more regular hours. The rehab has them m-f 8-4ish unless something special is planned like an outing. Then on Saturday morning for just a couple hours again unless something is planned. We’ve taken kids to movies, pumpkin patches, pro sports games, a barbershop, the mall etc. I think the LTC facility they don’t do weekends except for special occasions. We have outpatient medical daycares and they might float through them as well.
Yes, I studied at PSU and got a bachelors in science. Then got my Cadac thru idaac which is an online program. I recently got hired in at a large scope program in New Jersey, NewJerseySober.living and I would say the Cadac helped 10x more than having a degree. However, having a BA will help me grow at the company. Needless to say perhaps lol.