The potential of outdoor contexts within community-based rehabilitation to empower people with disabilities in their rehabilitation

Abstract

Purpose: The aim was to examine the potential of outdoor contexts within community-based rehabilitation to empower people with disabilities in their rehabilitation.

Materials and methods: Interpretive description was applied as the methodology in a 5-month ethnographic fieldwork study, and guided by social practice theory. In total, 115 people with disabilities were included for participant observation, of which 15 participants were recruited for individual walking interviews.

Results: Analysis revealed four overlapping themes. Firstly, “Revisiting the Outdoors” appeared to be an overarching theme, which created a basis for “Building Autonomy” among the participants. The varied outdoor experiences empowered the participants to take a more active role in their rehabilitation. These experiences afforded unique opportunities for “Connecting with Community” and, finally, “Embodied Learning” – that could be transferred to home and to other everyday contexts.

Conclusion: Outdoor contexts within community-based rehabilitation appeared to hold strong potential for connecting people with disabilities to communities. Although barriers exist, we argue that revisiting the outdoors supports collective awareness and action with the capacity to influence community attitudes more broadly.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION

• Outdoor contexts within community-based rehabilitation for people with disabilities capitalise on the features of both indoor and outdoor environments with activities that meet shifting individual priorities and needs.

• Outdoor contexts within community-based rehabilitation offer people with disabilities empowering experiences that are part of the landscape of everyday life and transfer well to home and other environments.

• Community-based rehabilitation directly involving outdoor contexts and supported by professional skills provides a crucial bridge from individual rehabilitation to community belonging.

Keywords:

• People with disabilities
• community-based rehabilitation
• outdoor contexts
• empowering experiences
• interpretive description

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank all the participants who generously contributed to this study. This work was supported by the Aarhus University Faculty of Health (Denmark) under Grant [81264]; and The Foundation of Central Denmark Region (Denmark) & under Grant [A1369]. The involvement of Sonya Jakubec was made possible with the support of Mount Royal University, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.