Advancing an environmentally responsible physiotherapy

 

The world faces complex and interrelated crises… Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, rapid urbanization, geopolitical conflict and militarization, demographic change, population displacement, poverty, and widespread inequity create risks of future crises even more severe than those experienced today. Responses require investments that integrate planetary, societal, community and individual health and well-being (WHO 2021 Geneva Charter for Wellbeing)

 

 The impact of human activities on our planet’s natural systems has been intensifying rapidly in the past several decades, leading to disruption and transformation of most natural systems. These disruptions in the atmosphere, oceans, and across the terrestrial land surface are not only driving species to extinction, they pose serious threats to human health and wellbeing. Characterising and addressing these threats requires a paradigm shift (Myers, 2017)

Action at the level of direct drivers of nature decline, although necessary, is not sufficient … a sustainable global future’ is ‘only possible with urgent transformative change that tackles the root causes: the interconnected economic, socio-cultural, demographic, political, institutional, and technological indirect drivers behind the direct drivers (Diaz et al., 2019)

About

An international community of academics, clinicians, practitioners and students interested in exploring and advancing the field of environmental physiotherapy. 

Blog

Follow our latest musings on environmental physiotherapy. Ideas, inspiration, news, publications, events, and more. 

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Become part of the first international community of physiotherapists with an interest in researching, developing, and practising physiotherapy at a planetary scale. 

Resources

A growing selection of resources carefully selected by members of the EPA to inspire your thinking and practice of environmental physiotherapy. 

Omhelzende natuur – een reflectie van een student op verbondenheid in de pandemie

Mezelf aanpassen aan de anderhalvemetermaatschappij, met daarin weinig tot geen lichamelijk contact: het is een flinke opgave en ik blijf het stug proberen. Zelfs na een jaar is het mij nog niet gelukt om hieraan te wennen. Dat is wellicht ook een goed teken, want het...

Physiotherapy and the Sustainable Development Goals – A students perspective

Now more than ever it feels necessary to, at a very minimum, encourage deliberation on the importance of adopting more sustainable practices in physiotherapy. Major fields such as engineering and fashion have already begun the process of teaching students about...

Is Environmental Healthcare Feasible for the U.S. Healthcare System?

U.S. American healthcare is a huge business. The U.S. “spends the most of any nation by far on its health care system, nearly one-fifth of GDP, “which makes it a trillion-dollar business (1). Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal, author of An American Sickness, explains that...

How do you touch an impossible thing?

Here’s a question to ponder: When you think about the physical therapies — touch, movement, exercise, electrotherapy, hydrotherapy, and so on — do you naturally think about one human doing something to or for another? If you do, you’re not alone, because almost the...

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