Therapeutic Recreation Leader (At-Will)

About the role

The City of Alexandria is located in Northern Virginia and is bordered by the District of Columbia (Potomac River), Arlington and Fairfax counties. The Therapeutic Recreation Leader (At-Will) position involves creating, implementing and leading therapeutic recreational programs for older adults with physical, cognitive, and intellectual disabilities.

Responsibilities

• Leads daily therapeutic recreational activities, instructs and demonstrates game methods, motivates participants to actively participate in therapeutic activities to enhance individuals physical, cognitive, social, emotional and spiritual well-being;
• Inspects equipment and monitors activities to ensure safety standards are met and guidelines are followed;
• Observes participants for changes in medical conditions and behavior;
• Removes participants from groups when behavior becomes inappropriate;
• Provides direct care to physically and cognitively impaired participants including toileting, changing soiled clothing, and assists with colostomy bags;
• Provides assistance with ambulation, redirects confused and wandering participants and maintains a safe environment;
• Plans and evaluates activities including scheduling appropriate groups at designated dates and times, ensuring all materials needed for activities are safe, clean and available for use, purchases supplies not available through City contracts;
• Uses community resources to enhance the activity program;
• Utilizes publications for activity professionals to incorporate new ideas and programs;
• Uses the internet to research activity ideas and supplies;
• Keeps accurate documentation of participants progress, Medicaid case notes and assessments, maintains daily attendance records, USDA food program records, schedule bi-weekly transportation and billing records, reconciliation of monthly credit card expenses, ordering and or shopping for monthly food supplies, prepares monthly breakfast and snack menus, answers the telephone, responds to questions from the public and directs calls to other City agencies;
• Other duties, special projects and reports as assigned by the supervisor;
• Food service responsibilities include recording accurate temperatures of catered lunch items;
• Prepares and serves breakfast, lunch and snack;
• Provides direction to temporary staff, Title V workers, Volunteers and Summer Youth employees;
• Provides training, assigns projects, monitor time sheets and report discrepancies to immediate supervisor;
• Housekeeping duties include but are not limited to kitchen clean up, cleaning the oven, logging freezer temperatures, monitor and rotate refrigerator, freezer, and pantry items to ensure food safety, sanitizing cooking and serving utensils, laundry, human waste cleanup, keeping rooms, closets and work area neat and clean, removing fall hazards, cleaning tables, activities equipment, yearly outdoor garden clean-up and maintenance, monitoring kitchen equipment daily to ensure it is in safe and proper working condition.
• Opens and closes the center.
• Ensures the participants arrive in safe manner and return home safely in the proper mode of transportation or makes changes as necessary, providing direct supervision to participants, temporary staff and volunteers, conducts a walk through to lock or unlock doors, checks for hazards or maintenance problems.
• Contacts emergency services and supervisors in the event of an emergency;
• In the absence of the Center Nurse, administers medications to participants, reads doctors’ orders, fills out the medical administration records;
• Maintains blood pressure readings, identifies classes of medications, identifies medication terminology and abbreviations, recognizes emergencies and other health threatening conditions and responds accordingly;
• Completes incident reports in the event of a fall, serious accident, or lost participant;
• Performs related work as required.

Requirements

• Two-Year College Degree; Good knowledge of the social and recreational sciences, including the theory, principles, and practices of therapeutic recreation; or any equivalent combination of experience and training which provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities;
• Able to acquire appropriate certification in CPR and First Aid within the first three months of employment;
• Completion of a minimum 40-hour training program consistent with Department of Medical Assistance Services requirement or Nursing Assistant Certification;
• Employees must possess a valid driver's license issued by the State of their residence;
• Pre-employment drug test;
• Criminal records check;
• TB test.

Qualifications

• Experience in therapeutic activities, preferably in an adult day care program setting or a directly related field working with the frail and impaired older seniors and person with disabilities;
• Completions of college-level courses in gerontology including therapeutic recreation;
• Or acquire appropriate certification from National Certification Council for Activities Professionals.

Benefits

This position requires the successful completion of pre-employment background checks including but not limited to: Criminal Records Check; VA State Child Abuse/Neglect Registry; Medicare/Medicaid Fraud Database; Verification of education/certifications; Drug screening and TB test.

Pay

$45,121.96 - $60,441.94 annual

Schedule

This is an At-Will (PRN) position. Minimum numbers of hours are not guaranteed. As an Essential Employee, staff will be expected to be at work during weekends, holidays, or inclement weather if they have been scheduled.