RehabMove 2018: EVALUATING LEGACY TO DEVELOPING SPORT POLICY IN THE MEDICAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS

This manuscript explores the creation of a framework for understanding medical and health legacies and the subsequent establishment of policy related to sustainable development of these legacies for nations participating in the Paralympic Games. With the definitions of medical legacy being medical care for Paralympians’, and health legacy as ‘public health care’ for people with or without a disability, the proposed framework includes the inputs of a positive and planned legacy (also known as “heritage”) and outputs as tangible and/or intangible legacies. From the second inputs onwards, it sets out policy for intermediary and final outcomes. The method is a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches which are respectively applied to inputs and outputs in order to develop a feasible way in evaluating the nature of legacy both pre and post-event. Ultimately, the framework is expected to help us understand the flow of impacts or benefits from medical care provided for athletes with disability to long term public health. It is illustrated by a diagram showing the medical and health legacies over several Paralympic Games