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

“It Was Definitely an Eye-Opener to Me”—People with Disabilities’ and Health Professionals’ Perceptions on Combining Traditional Indoor Rehabilitation Practice with an Urban Green Rehabilitation Context

“…Interpretive description was used to generate practice-based knowledge on rehabilitation practices in collaboration with and to the benefit of people with disabilities and health professionals [ 36 ]. Interpretive description provided an organising logic throughout the study by asking questions based in practice and guided by research results from the same practice field, namely those of a previous ethnographic fieldwork embedded in the developing SPARK park [ 18 , 24 ]. Interpretive description differs from other methodologies by drawing on a variety of already known research traditions and methods, thus allowing for a pragmatic approach to the research aim in question [ 36 ].…”

“…The MarselisborgCentre is a national centre for rehabilitation, organised as a cluster organisation with approximately 20 rehabilitation centres [ 25 , 40 ]. With the establishment of a SPARK park, the outdoor surroundings of the MarselisborgCentre are being transformed to a 7.2-hectare urban green space combining rehabilitation facilities, climate adaptation and health promotion [ 18 , 24 , 25 ].…”

“…Worldwide, a range of initiatives have been established primarily within the fields of therapeutic gardens [ 7 , 8 , 9 ], green care farms [ 10 , 11 ] as well as public health agendas [ 5 , 12 ]. Improvements in mental health [ 13 , 14 , 15 ], holistic assessment [ 16 ] and empowering experiences of people with disabilities [ 9 , 17 , 18 ] have been documented. By facilitating a varying physical and social context with different levels of difficulty urban green spaces may enable people with disabilities to overcome challenges of community engagement [ 18 , 19 ] and encourage more physical activity [ 19 , 20 ].…”

“…Improvements in mental health [ 13 , 14 , 15 ], holistic assessment [ 16 ] and empowering experiences of people with disabilities [ 9 , 17 , 18 ] have been documented. By facilitating a varying physical and social context with different levels of difficulty urban green spaces may enable people with disabilities to overcome challenges of community engagement [ 18 , 19 ] and encourage more physical activity [ 19 , 20 ]. The World Health Organization defines urban green space as all urban land covered by vegetation of any kind, irrespective of size and function, which can also include small water bodies (“blue spaces”) [ 21 ].…”

“…To address contemporary needs for developing urban green spaces for rehabilitation activities [ 2 , 19 ] and encourage inclusive community development of people with disabilities [ 22 , 23 ], the SPARK (Sound Park Activities, Rehabilitation and Climate) park will be established in Aarhus, the second-largest city in Denmark [ 18 , 24 , 25 ]. The SPARK park has the contextual surroundings to be a potential unique example of an urban green space intervention for an innovative rehabilitation solution [ 18 , 24 , 25 ]. Based on the increasing evidence on the positive link between health and nature [ 26 , 27 ], urban green spaces have grown into an important public health initiative, which has been conceptualised in political documents by the World Health Organization and the European Commission [ 21 , 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”