Summer and winter recondition camps for children with cystic fibrosis

Summer and winter recondition camps are organized for children aged 6 to 17 years. Both types of camps include sportive activity where the methods of therapeutic physical training are used with the stress on the psychosocial rehabilitation. The paper describes the camps' program: daily regimen of children, motion activity, psychology of forming children's subgroups, psychosocial attitudes. Team attitude of medical, rehabilitation and psychological care is reported. The results of a questionnaire study of 72 children show that the stay in recondition camps enables the patients to acquire more realistic view on themselves. Here take place: 1. informal testing of physical and mental abilities of the patients which enables the comparison with equally affected contemporaries, 2. testing of new skills, 3. assessment of own attitudes to the disease, 4. experience of succes or failure in competition games, 5. creation of friendly relations, 6. modeling of life situations as cooperation and competition. The acquired experience and skill from the camps enable the patients optimal adaptation to the disease and an easier assertion into the collective of healthy children at school. Since 1986, summer and winter camp have been repeatedly organized in Jabkenice and Záton-Lenora for the patients with CF. Psychosocial therapy is realized with the group of child patients (45 children in summer recondition camp Jabkenice and 25 children in winter recondition camp Záton-Lenora). Their aims was recondition, rehabilitation, recreation and socialization. The summer camp has the administration: medical staff--3 physicians, 1 physiotherapist, 5 specialists for camp programme, 4 cooks, 1 provision coordinator, 1 driver.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)