Guaranteeing the right to leisure in rural environments
Participation in cultural life, leisure, and sport is a fundamental right of all people, as it forms part of their socialization and inclusion in society, their well-being, their personal development, and their mental health. Furthermore, according to the 2022 Report on the Situation of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Catalonia , this right is especially relevant for people with intellectual disabilities because:
These individuals have fewer opportunities to establish relationships. The relationships they do form are mostly within the family, in care settings, and among those who provide them with support.
People with disabilities need support to be able to establish and maintain friendships on equal terms with the rest of the population.
This group of people is characterized by undergoing a more aggressive and premature aging process.
Twenty percent of people with disabilities live alone, and 38% do so out of necessity. Furthermore, people with intellectual disabilities experience feelings of loneliness to a greater degree (Díez and Morenos, 2015).
Promoting mental health through leisure
Guarantee access from the entities
Any project in this area must guarantee social and community inclusion and promote improved health through socialization. These actions not only help mitigate the effects of physical and emotional decline, but their main objective is to significantly improve people's quality of life.
When planning and implementing actions aimed at improving mental health through leisure in rural environments, it is recommended that entities consider the following essential aspects:
Offer adapted activities
Activities should be adapted to the participants. To achieve this, the type of activity, its duration, the venue, and the available staff should all be taken into account when organizing them.
To offer affordable leisure activities
Leisure activities, especially those organized for people with disabilities, are often expensive, making them inaccessible to this group. This cost stems from the need for professional support and adapted transportation, in addition to the cost of the activity itself (dinner, drinks, tickets, etc.). Therefore, it is essential that the cost of activities be adjusted to reflect current social realities and that access to discounts, vouchers, and other resources that reduce the price be facilitated.
Develop leisure activities in the territory of the people
The problems of living in a rural environment, such as the lack of transport connections, added to the difficulties that people with disabilities have in carrying out leisure activities, place these people in a position of extreme vulnerability.
Therefore, it is very important to propose leisure activities that take place in the same territory where people live.
Moving activities to small towns benefits the entire territory: the aim of these activities is to promote and celebrate popular culture and community participation in the different localities.
To bring people closer to cultural offerings outside of rural areas
There is a lack of public transport connecting rural areas with the rest of the country. This lack of public transport means that exploring the region without a private vehicle is not encouraged, and therefore some groups are excluded from this opportunity. This is the case for people with disabilities, who, in addition to often having reduced mobility, face other factors that further hinder their independence when traveling and engaging in leisure activities: the ability to manage the logistics of outings, financial resources, etc.
Therefore, the organizations that run the activities must provide the necessary transportation so that everyone can attend. In addition to providing round-trip transportation, they must ensure that this transportation is accessible if needed: Are people in wheelchairs attending the activity? Is the wheelchair electric? Is it foldable? These are questions we must ask ourselves when organizing an activity.
Likewise, another way to bring people closer to the cultural offerings is to provide information on the activities and initiatives being promoted in the territory; at the same time, seeking support to be able to attend these activities is also an essential task.
Encourage the active participation of people in the organization of activities
The participation of people in the organization of activities can be encouraged by holding regular meetings.
The assembly-based model requires more management effort than if professionals decided on activities independently, but it ensures that the real needs of the people connected to the service are identified and met. Therefore, working in this way is vital if a quality service is to be offered.
Furthermore, to involve people in the project, it's important to explain the activities and ensure they understand what will happen. In turn, allowing people to decide the extent of their participation is crucial (for example, someone might want to attend an activity as an observer rather than an active participant).
Submit a quarterly proposal of varied and adapted activities
Firstly, to facilitate the organization of families and the different institutions that support people, it is very useful to anticipate what activities will take place and on what dates.
Furthermore, having the activities for the following months finalized streamlines the process of organizing them with participants: people know which activities will take place and can therefore inform the organizers about their planned attendance, allowing for earlier planning of necessary resources (transportation, monitoring, etc.). Operating in this way also ensures that people's need for leisure and socialization is met.
Secondly, regarding the choice of activities, members express their preferences at the regular meetings; however, the organization has a duty to design a varied program of activities, taking all suggestions into account. Therefore, it is very important to offer diverse activities, combining theater, film, gastronomy, history, sports, nightlife, and so on.
For example, if most of the suggestions that appear are related to nightlife and gastronomy, but at the same time there are some people who express that they would like to visit museums and theaters, it is necessary to find a balance and offer activities that take into account all the opinions expressed.
Finally, when designing activities to promote the quarterly program, it is recommended to classify them into different categories: youth, seniors, adapted, etc. This should not be an exclusionary method, but rather an informative one: the labels are not meant to limit access, but to provide as much information as possible so that participants and their families can assess the activities.
Presenting a leisure proposal with these characteristics improves the mental health of the participants and, in some cases, their families, as it ensures that everyone has real access to leisure: people are informed about the activities and their type, while ensuring that all leisure needs are met.
Promote collaboration with entities in the territory
An important strategy for ensuring access to leisure activities for people with disabilities is to promote connections with local organizations ( Scouts or Caus in Catalonia, community centers, etc.). This means that professionals must be able to identify leisure and community engagement needs that cannot be met by the project itself.
For example, the project can detect that there is a person who would like to do sports during the week, but who cannot access the entity's services for various reasons:
- Because there is a lack of transportation between your town and the town where the entity's sporting activities take place.
- Because the schedules don't suit him.
- Due to a lack of autonomy when using public transport.
- By the person's own decision.
- Other reasons.
In this case, then, it would be important to find out what initiatives exist in your locality and facilitate your involvement.
To identify and report human rights violations
It is important that any organization promoting leisure activities demonstrates a political and social commitment to upholding the rights of people with disabilities. Therefore, the organization must speak out against violations of these rights, such as verbal abuse, physical aggression, lack of accessibility in public spaces, denial of access to services, cultural and sporting exclusion, and so on.
It is also vitally important to have established reporting channels, as well as making them available to the people involved: that is, to make people aware, in an understandable way, of the procedure to follow and who to contact in case of an attack.
As professionals in the sector, we have the right and the duty to speak out against unfair situations, while we fight every day to improve the mental and physical health and, consequently, the quality of life of people with disabilities.
One example is the Mental Health and Rural Environment Report prepared by the Mental Health Federation of Catalonia: reports like this are a fundamental tool for deploying public policies that take into account the adverse effects of rurality, such as its impact on people's mental health.
In conclusion, recognizing that leisure activities are an essential tool for socialization and mental health care for people with disabilities (Fitó and Rovira, 2022), we trust that these recommendations will help create inclusive, accessible and enriching leisure spaces that improve the quality of life of people with disabilities living in rural environments.
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