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Where wild things grow: Friluftsterapi as a preventative, health promoting, and sustainable method for children with neurodivergence in school, health care, family and leisure settings in Southern Norway

Rebecca Pearson

Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, England

Rebecca is a PhD student at Edge Hill University in the UK. She has a background in counseling and psychotherapy and has predominantly worked with children and young people. Rebecca is also a rock climbing instructor and an outdoor adventure enthusiast and believes that nature, adventure, outdoor physical activity, and the benefits they provide, should be accessible to all. She has a masters degree in child and adolescent mental health and her PhD is focused on using outdoor adventure activities to promote resilience in female youth.

Me - Rebecca Pearson.jpg

Using Outdoor Adventure Activities (OAA) as a resilience building intervention with female youth: building new theories and framework using a Realist Approach

Outdoor Adventure Activities (OAA) can positively impact youth resilience, and female youth have shown more enduring and functional improvements in resilience than their male peers following participation in OAA programmes (Allan and McKenna, 2022). Promoting resilience is important as pressures on young females increase the risk of depression and anxiety (Manner et al., 2020). Therefore, using adventure therapy to promote female youth resilience may be a worthwhile endeavor. There remains a lack of consensus and robust theories on which to build effective OAA interventions (Allan, 2021). Existing theories have received criticism due to the lack of contextual and cultural specificity (Pomfret et al., 2023), a dearth of evidence supporting the underpinning beliefs, and little empirical research verifying their usefulness with specific populations (Pollock and Harper, 2022). To address this, a realist review of the evidence was completed. Findings from academic papers, grey literature, and expert consultations were combined; to support the construction and refinement of six theories which propose important aspects of context, intervention architecture, mechanisms, and outcomes. These were developed into an overarching model to show how the findings could be used in practice. This presentation will discuss of; the process of developing the theories; presentation of the six theories; an explanation of the overarching model and how it could be used; theories from other disciplines which support this work and may be useful to consider in practice. Following this, recommendations of how this research may be applied in adventure therapy, and suggestions for future research will be highlighted.

Where wild things grow: Friluftsterapi as a preventative, health promoting, and sustainable method for children with neurodivergence in school, health care, family and leisure settings in Southern Norway

Collaborating with Female Youth and Practitioners to Co-Design
an Outdoor Adventure Activity (OAA) Intervention

Female youth who participate in Outdoor Adventure Activity (OAA) programmes have shown more enduring and functional improvements in resilience than their male peers following participation (Allan and McKenna, 2022). Promoting resilience is important as pressures on young females increase the risk of depression and anxiety (Manner et al., 2021). Therefore, using adventure therapy, as a preventative intervention, to build resilience with female youth may be a worthwhile endeavor.
Co-design is effective when creating youth mental health interventions (Thorn et al., 2020), therefore, this approach is being utilized to co-design an OAA intervention to promote resilience in female youth. This presentation will discuss the findings and propose how this research could be used to inform adventure therapy practice.
Workshops and consultations were conducted with female youth and OAA practitioners to co-design an OAA intervention. Participants completed activities such as drawing, mind-mapping, photo/video tasks, and discussion to explore and communicate their ideas, preferences, and perceptions. The research is ongoing (due for completion April 2024); however, preliminary findings suggest that the young women would prefer to work with strangers, value variety, and want opportunities to make decisions and feel in control. When and where an intervention takes place impacts how accessible it is perceived to be, and an inclusive approach which builds new connections is key.  
The presentation will cover the findings of the co-design project and discuss how this research can be applied to adventure therapy practice to inform a more proactive and preventative approach which is accessible, accessible, and effective.

Collaborating with Female Youth to Co-Design an Outdoor Adventure Activity (OAA) Intervention: Increasing Acceptability, Accessibility, Feasibility, and Effectiveness.

Co-design is effective when creating youth mental health interventions (Shah et al., 2020; Morote et al., 2022). However, examples of using co-design to construct preventative Outdoor Adventure Activity (OAA) interventions are absent from the literature. Adventure therapists often support young people to make decisions about their therapy and believe that the client is the expert on themselves (Dobud and Natynczuk, 2023). Therefore, co-designing OAA interventions with participants could be a fitting approach to adopt. However, connecting with youth to create interventions requires considering how co-design can be done in a way that feels safe, engaging, accessible, and empowering to youth (Thorn et al., 2020; O’Reilly et al., 2022).  

This presentation will use an example of how co-design is being used to create an OAA intervention, which aims to promote female youth resilience, to demonstrate how this approach can be employed. Female youth participated in workshops and consultation sessions which incorporated: worksheets, drawing activities, picture/video tasks, and discussions. The participants were engaged throughout and shared that this was an enjoyable experience. They made friends through the process and provided valuable insights which informed the co-design. 

The rationale for using co-design will be enunciated before the process is described and discussed. Planning, recruitment, ethical considerations, activity construction, conducting workshops, analysis, consultation, and intervention creation will be explored. Following this, insights from engaging in the process of co-design, and ideas for how this approach can be applied to adventure therapy practice, to increase efficacy and connections with clients, will be shared. 

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