Sailing Away the Pain: Evaluating an Adventure Sailing Therapy Program for Adults Living in a Drug Rehabilitation Center

The study consists of a pilot study aimed to the evaluation of a sailing therapy pro- gram with drug users and multi-diagnosed patients. A need that practitioners working in nature-based programs in Italy are identifying as urgent is the difficulty in finding effective evaluation methods and tools. Although some validated tools specific for outdoor programs do exist, context specific tools are needed. The wider participatory research, of which this study is part and that is still in progress, has the aim to collect and/or create a wide range of possible evalua- tion tools and methods to be used by nature-based practitioners or to serve as an in- spiration for them to create their own. In this study, a self-assessment questionnaire for adult patients, living in a drug reha- bilitation center and experiencing a sailing therapy week, was created starting from three preexisting tools, which were adapted to this specific context: the first results are encouraging.