“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

Abstract

Research points to the health benefits of rehabilitation in urban green spaces. Nevertheless, more studies indicate complexity of utilising urban green spaces in an established health system context. An understanding of challenges related to rehabilitation in urban green spaces remains unaddressed. Therefore, the aim was to describe and analyse people with disabilities’ and health professionals’ perceptions on combining traditional indoor rehabilitation practice with an urban green rehabilitation context. The interpretive description methodology was applied supplemented by Edgar Schein’s Model of Organisational Culture. Three online focus group interviews were conducted with people with disabilities (n = 4) and health professionals (n = 10). Three interrelated themes formed an understanding of rehabilitation practice in an urban green rehabilitation context: “ambivalence due to contextual change”, “negotiating rehabilitation assumptions” and “expanding the frame of rehabilitation”. Expanding the frame of rehabilitation to an urban green context may provide a basis for enhancing compatibility to everyday life for people with disabilities and still accommodate structural quality standards of professional rehabilitation practice.