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Hunter Mercier

OTH: 502

Dr. Bickmore

16 December 2022

Lifestyle Redesign Summary

Physical activity and outdoor recreation programs offer avenues for people with

disabilities to improve their overall health and well-being, socialization skills, and enjoyment and

quality of life. In fact, outdoor recreation is centered around physical activity and social

engagement because it can help prevent secondary health problems such as obesity and

depression.Participating in activities that take people beyond their disability has a tremendous

impact. It helps build self-esteem and self-confidence. It promotes weight loss, strength,

flexibility, and motor skills. And the social aspect is very beneficial as well because it enables

people to create new bonds, leaving the individual with an enhanced self-image and expanded

social skills.

Lifestyle redesign is a perfect intervention tactic for improving the health and wellness of

people with physical disabilities. My topic examined the benefits of physical activity and outdoor

recreation for individuals with physical disabilities. The purpose of my short study was to see

how important physical activity and outdoor recreation is for people with physical disabilities

along with the benefits that they get from participating in them. I was also curious to see if the

participants had anything like accessible playgrounds or outdoor recreation programs available to

them where they live. Pine Tree Camp immediately popped into my mind when this project was

introduced because I knew that I had the connections and the opportunities to talk to real
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campers with physical disabilities. The process of obtaining this information was not the easiest

but I was happy to get feedback from three people.

From the participant feedback, I learned that all 3 participants stated that they do not get

much exercise at home but do enjoy being outdoors. 2/3 participants discussed personal

implications that they have when it comes to their physical disability and participating in

physical activity and/or outdoor recreation. And I saw that 0/3 participants have access to

accessible playgrounds and/or outdoor recreation programs available to them. I know for me

personally that I have never seen a fully accessible playground and the only other programs I

have heard about came through working at Pine Tree Camp. I think it is really unfortunate that

people with disabilities do not have access to adaptable facilities or playgrounds where they have

the chance to be outside and around people like them. When reflecting on my project I realized

my connection with Pine Tree Camp, my involvement with the Waterville YMCA unified

basketball program, and Facebook were all supports for me. The barriers I faced included: only

being able to get ahold of 5 campers and only 3 out of those 5 responded in time. I also had to

send the questionnaire over Facebook messenger for ⅔. Which could have caused some

confusion and unreliable data in their responses.

Overall I really enjoyed the entire experience of this project. It was nice to have the

freedom and opportunity to create a presentation on something that you are passionate about.

The lack of a due date was definitely an issue for me because I just kept putting it off and waiting

to see if I got more participant responses. I knew my project would be better with the more data

that I collected.