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. 

Sugar consumption is bad for human health, but have you thought about the effect of sugar production?

We are all aware of the negative health effects associated with sugar consumption, but have you thought about the planetary health implications of its production? Holidaying in Far North Queensland a few years ago brought home to me the scale of the destruction of the...

They are not “natural” disasters, but disasters of vulnerability

Shaun and Mathieu are physiotherapists with experience in disaster response. They were accepted to present a workshop at the Canadian Physiotherapy Association’s “Congress 2020” on the use of the disaster cycle to conceptualize the roles of physiotherapists in the...

The intersection of climate change, mind-body medicine, mental health, & physiotherapy

While the physiotherapy profession continues to grapple with how to address an entrenched split between mind and body in health care, we are facing an even larger challenge: a disconnect from the natural world. The concept of integrative health as applied to...

Restoring harmony – How pacific indigenous knowledge can help physiotherapists navigate environmental responsibility

It is a privilege to contribute to the conversation of how the physiotherapy profession could, and should, embark on critically evaluating its relationship with the natural environment. In doing this, I draw on the knowledge of my forbears, particularly in Samoa, to...

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