Health, recreation, and the unemployed: an interactive model

Researchers in disciplines of health, recreation/leisure, and labor point out how their respective fields address individual health and societal well-being. However, such perspectives are more often expressed in single tracks or combinations of health and recreation, health and employment, or recreation and unemployment, but seldom all three together. This article suggests the adaptation of a more inclusive conceptual model which triangulates the interdependence between individual or social health, access to public sector recreational activities, and target populations of unemployed people. An inclusive systems model which articulates theoretical and practical linkages between health, recreation, and joblessness is proposed. This interdisciplinary approach can help social service agencies ameliorate individual and social pathologies brought on by unemployment.