Geocaching as therapy

January 20, 2011

I am a recreational therapist and, as such, help rehabilitate people who have had brain injuries (among other conditions). I am currently waiting out the winter here in Ohio, but when spring comes, I plan on using geocaching as therapy for some of my brain injured patients. Since this is on an inpatient rehabilitation unit, we will be staying on hospital property. Since I would never be able to place and publish a cache on hospital property, I am going to input my own coordinates on the property and hide a cache (which I will only leave out a few hours prior to the session with the patient) for them to locate. As a therapist, I will be with them to assist as needed, but it would be an amazing activity for fairly ambulatory and "high level" cognitive patients.

In all likelihood, I will probably present on this topic at an upcoming national conference with other recreational therapists this fall in Indianapolis. Just wanted to share this little tidbit with you all.

January 20, 2011

My wife and I met a guy out on the trail while caching one day. He shared with us that he had suffered a brain injury and Geocaching was a hobby he really enjoyed. If I remember correctly he said it helped his "left" and "right" brains work together. I'm no expert but I think you might be on to something.

2.4k · January 20, 2011

A subject near to my head heart! Sounds like good idea, at least for some.

Did you know that bike helmets work, mostly, when worn through the right type of crash?

I found out the hard way... but didn't get much other than some hospital time and advice.

The cacheing came much later, on my own... I find it good for 'diverting' stress and sharpening up wits...

For your higher functioning types... consider solving puzzles if they can... while waiting for physical hunts...

I use them for checking for a B12 shortfall... When I can't solve any, it's time to seek help again... but that is another story.

Good luck with it.

Doug 7rxc

January 20, 2011

I am a recreational therapist and, as such, help rehabilitate people who have had brain injuries (among other conditions). I am currently waiting out the winter here in Ohio, but when spring comes, I plan on using geocaching as therapy for some of my brain injured patients. Since this is on an inpatient rehabilitation unit, we will be staying on hospital property. Since I would never be able to place and publish a cache on hospital property, I am going to input my own coordinates on the property and hide a cache (which I will only leave out a few hours prior to the session with the patient) for them to locate. As a therapist, I will be with them to assist as needed, but it would be an amazing activity for fairly ambulatory and "high level" cognitive patients.

In all likelihood, I will probably present on this topic at an upcoming national conference with other recreational therapists this fall in Indianapolis. Just wanted to share this little tidbit with you all.

January 20, 2011

Hey fellow CTRS- I'm with you. But I won't be going to Indy! (Doing a photography workshop instead. Another hobby...) But what I have done is to go to some caches within the block of the hospital that are already there. The purpose is to help people see what is in front of them already but need to re-focus. (A precursor to that is doing tangram.) Having said that... depends on the density of where your facility is on how consistent the co-ordinates are. That's why it is most likely to be under "community re-entry" since you would want to be away from the hospital to do it. FIRST STEPS FIRST. Maps in the hospital..... (focus and concentration) and then coordinates outside the hospital...... and finally geocaching. Breaking down the steps is crucial with TBI pts (and stroke). Now here's my idea.... you are in INDy at the conference and we SKYE a geocache with me in WA state. IS THAT TECHY OR WHAT?

January 20, 2011

Hey fellow CTRS- I'm with you. But I won't be going to Indy! (Doing a photography workshop instead. Another hobby...) But what I have done is to go to some caches within the block of the hospital that are already there. The purpose is to help people see what is in front of them already but need to re-focus. (A precursor to that is doing tangram.) Having said that... depends on the density of where your facility is on how consistent the co-ordinates are. That's why it is most likely to be under "community re-entry" since you would want to be away from the hospital to do it. FIRST STEPS FIRST. Maps in the hospital..... (focus and concentration) and then coordinates outside the hospital...... and finally geocaching. Breaking down the steps is crucial with TBI pts (and stroke). Now here's my idea.... you are in INDy at the conference and we SKYE a geocache with me in WA state. IS THAT TECHY OR WHAT?

Haha, love your ideas. Ironically the hospital is creating a new wayfinding system to help others get around better so I look forward to the pathfinding therapy sessions I will have (or should I say IMPROVED sessions since the previous wayfinding sort of stunk due to poor signage and a HUGE campus).

Geocaching near the hospital won't really work as we are in a pretty rough neighborhood. There is one cache nearby (I placed it...GC2KPB4) and it is a good PNG but tends to have some weirdo mugglers around since it's at a bus stop. It's the only cache within walking distance from the hospital. Oh well, trust me, the hospital just did a huge "greenspace" area at the center of the campus complete with a waterfall and stream, lots of boulders, trees, and bushes. It's a geocaching nirvana!

Too bad you won't be in Indy but we'll meet up at some future conference and I'll have my GPS ready to go

Edited January 20, 2011 by geocating

January 20, 2011

Sounds like a great idea! About placing caches on the hospital property, if hidden properly, you may just want to leave them in place. Of course get the official OK from whom ever you need to. Also let the guy in charge of grounds know what and where they are. Good luck with it and keep us updated.

January 20, 2011

Good luck! I use it as a therapy, sort of - I have chronic depression and the exercise and activity really helps clear my head.

January 21, 2011

Good luck! I use it as a therapy, sort of - I have chronic depression and the exercise and activity really helps clear my head.

I would love to get other recreational therapists who work with those who have depression to try this too! I am leaning more toward presenting this at my fall conference

January 21, 2011

Good luck! I use it as a therapy, sort of - I have chronic depression and the exercise and activity really helps clear my head.

If I didn't sneak out and go caching every so often my depression would be a lot worses then it is. I use to ride my bike to caches and that would help also. The shame is that I've gotten all the caches with a bike ride from my house. Caching does help with clearing my head and calming my nerves.

5.7k · January 21, 2011

Good luck! I use it as a therapy, sort of - I have chronic depression and the exercise and activity really helps clear my head.

If I didn't sneak out and go caching every so often my depression would be a lot worses then it is. I use to ride my bike to caches and that would help also. The shame is that I've gotten all the caches with a bike ride from my house. Caching does help with clearing my head and calming my nerves.

Wow, seems that we have more in common than geocaching. Depression. I ride my bike to caches also, just me and my Dachsund. I enjoy being alone most times. I have a wonderful family, but I make few friends. I also enjoy hiking for geocaches.

January 21, 2011

Wow, seems that we have more in common than geocaching. Depression. I ride my bike to caches also, just me and my Dachsund. I enjoy being alone most times. I have a wonderful family, but I make few friends. I also enjoy hiking for geocaches.

I am so glad to hear I am in good company. I also prefer to be alone. The sense of accomplishment is so much greater for me, when a cache is found by me alone. It is even better when the difficulty/terrain level is higher.

2.3k · January 21, 2011

I did this for some of the people I work with at my job. Couldn't publish a cache here and because they have some cognitive impairment and are older the learning curve with a GPS was just too much but I made a "multi" and hid some treasure at the end and put out a bunch of clues on where to find the next step. I move the "cache" around every couple months with new clues on the grounds of the facility. They really enjoy it a lot.

5.7k · January 22, 2011

Wow, seems that we have more in common than geocaching. Depression. I ride my bike to caches also, just me and my Dachsund. I enjoy being alone most times. I have a wonderful family, but I make few friends. I also enjoy hiking for geocaches.

I am so glad to hear I am in good company. I also prefer to be alone. The sense of accomplishment is so much greater for me, when a cache is found by me alone. It is even better when the difficulty/terrain level is higher.

When I first started geocaching I met some local cachers through this site. I have never been a social networker, I don't use Facebook, ect. We became geofriends, added each other to our friends list anyway. I'm sure that they had not a clue that I suffer from depression, and yes. I am strange at times, anyone that follows these forums knows this. When one user turned another user against me because of something I said in a PM, I lost two friends from my friends list. I was devistated. What got me the worst is that one represents themselves as a good Christian. I don't think a decent perosn would turn their back on another human that suffers from something that they can not control. But I'm the type of person that will avoid people that have issues with me.

Also having a sleep disorder gives me plenty of time to read and research history to develope geocaches that I find interesting. Seems that others enjoy my history caches and waymarks also. I lost a friend in a hunting accident in November of 2009, he was a avid historian. I like to think that he would approve of me trying to record our local history through geocaching and Waymarking.

January 22, 2011

That's an awesome idea! You could probably even do a co-treat with PT if they're not ambulating well, because you know how they like to test people out on various terrains It's really great to see somebody using this as a therapeutic activity. If you have any info or articles regarding it in the future, link us up! I'm a COTA, so I'm really interested to see how this works out for you.

January 23, 2011

Thinking about this, If my Doc wrights me a script to go Geocaching, is it considered a medical wright off? :lol: J/K

January 23, 2011

That's an awesome idea! You could probably even do a co-treat with PT if they're not ambulating well, because you know how they like to test people out on various terrains It's really great to see somebody using this as a therapeutic activity. If you have any info or articles regarding it in the future, link us up! I'm a COTA, so I'm really interested to see how this works out for you.

Absolutely! I am sooooo ready for spring to get this up and going. However, it was -5 degrees this morning so it will be a while

March 19, 2011

Just an update. I took my first patient out (on hospital grounds) to simulate a geocaching hunt. I marked a waypoint and placed an item (not a container with a log) in a relatively hidden area. He is a 21 year old with a brain injury but ambulates very well. The perfect combination for geocaching as therapy! Anyway, after initial instruction on how to use the device, he was able to follow the compass and locate the hide with a slight bit of assistance. I was able to introduce him to a potential new hobby as well!

I also introduced another patient to geocaching using the website today. He is currently too weak to actually go geocaching but was so interested that he now has a goal to be able to actually go do it by this summer.

I love geocaching and I love my job!

22k · March 19, 2011

Excellent. Love the updates.

March 23, 2011

That's great. I had a stroke two years ago and still have some cognitive deficits including some rather bizarre visual closure issues. Geocaching has been very helpful to me although sometimes the puzzles are easier than actually finding the cache. I know the therapists really struggled at acute rehab because they were used to older, retired patients and really didn't have many tools for those of us wanting to go back to work. This I think would take the patient one step closer to finding those new pathways in the brain. Maybe you could alter the types of caches and hiding spaces based on the individual patient's deficits (she says a she spends 20 minutes looking for the apostrophe on the keyboard!) Will be interesting to see how this works out for you.

Geocaching as therapy

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