Healing waters: Integrating blue care into recreational therapy practice.

This article focuses on the concept of blue care, a nature-based intervention (NBI) that utilizes natural aquatic environments—referred to as blue spaces such as oceans, lakes, rivers, and ponds—to promote physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. Supported by Ulrich's Stress Reduction Theory, blue care interventions include both active engagements (e.g., swimming, surfing, kayaking) and passive exposures (e.g., viewing water scenes, guided imagery), and have demonstrated benefits across diverse populations including children, older adults, and veterans. The review highlights the alignment between blue care and recreational therapy (RT), suggesting that Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists (CTRSs) can integrate blue care into RT practice to enhance client outcomes, although formal research specifically within RT remains limited. Challenges to blue care's effectiveness include environmental factors such as pollution and individual considerations like water safety skills and past trauma, underscoring the need for tailored, evidence-based protocols and further research on blue care's application in RT.