Abstract:

Recreational physical activity is known to have health benefits, and regular participation in sports activities is positively associated with improved quality of life, life satisfaction, community building, physical and mental recovery through sports.

This is especially relevant in today’s conditions, when it comes to the reintegration of Ukrainian veterans who have returned or will return to civilian life. Currently, adaptive sports are most in demand among veterans as means of rehabilitation, including active military personnel. This is due not only to the fact that this group of people is most at risk of injury, trauma, or illness, but also to the specific effects of adaptive sports on physical and psychological health.

Adaptive sports programs in Ukraine, although they echo the experience of the military from the USA, Great Britain, Canada, and other countries, are very different from foreign ones. First, Ukrainian military personnel participate in hostilities on the territory of their own country. Second, they recover from injuries, traumas or illnesses often during extended military service, and there is always the potential for them to return to the combat zone, where there is a threat of retraumatization and worsening of their current physical or psychological condition. Therefore, one of the challenges now to implementing rehabilitation programs through adaptive sports is to build a knowledge base about why it should be done in general, for whom, how it affects, how to do it, and what obstacles we face.

Studying foreign experience in veteran rehabilitation through adaptive sports is an important step for this area to further institutionalize and gain subjectivity alongside other practices whose effectiveness has been proven.

Keywords: adaptive sports, quality of life, veteran, recovery, practice.

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