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. 

Join

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. 

Roots and Relations – Garden to Connect, Rwanda

What is the relation between growing plants, reused plastic pipes and physiotherapy? I have often been asked this, since I have engaged in urban gardening in Rwanda and Denmark. My personal path to connect the dots contains two meetings and an opportunity, which I...

The EPA Student Assembly

Students have been a critical part of the Environmental Physiotherapy Association since day one. The unquestionable passion of physiotherapy students wishing to learn how they can contribute to doing something positive for their environment as part of the profession...

Shaping the future of physiotherapy: A blogpost by EPA student representatives Issie Long and Thies Bundtzen

Since the launch of the EPA physiotherapy students from around the world continue to join the association. Their enthusiasm for the subject field is evident in the comments, thoughts, concerns and energy they bring as they join, and, just like in the ongoing worldwide...

How physiotherapy can take a central role in primary healthcare and climate change

Studying physiotherapy sparked my passion for what we call the ‘health care system’, and more specifically primary healthcare. I decided to follow up on this passion and pursue an advanced Master degree in Global Health, where I had the opportunity to dive deeper in...

If you have any thoughts, ideas or questions about environmental physiotherapy,
we would love to hear from you anytime

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