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. 

Call for Papers for the first-ever special issue embracing Environmental Physiotherapy in Frontiers in Public Health

Ever since the founding of the EPA, environmental physiotherapy has been growing from strength to strength. We have produced over 100 academic publications of different types, written over 130 blogposts in more than 10 languages, are producing extensive resources for...

Planetare Gesundheit in ErgoLogoPhysio – Welche Rolle spielen wir in der Klimakrise?

Die Health for Future Arbeitsgruppe ErgoLogoPhysio (ELP) lädt zusammen mit der Planetary Health Academy der Deutschen Allianz Klimawandel und Gesundheit e.V. (KLUG) zu einer kostenlosen, interaktiven Online-Veranstaltungsreihe zum Thema „Planetare Gesundheit in...

How to move a mountain with a biodegradable spoon

The move towards an environmentally sustainable teaching facility for clinical physiotherapy practice or even a private community practice is a challenging task. We asked our staff and students what they would like to see changed. The younger staff and students, who...

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...

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