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. 

Sinai University Holds Its First Environmental Physiotherapy Session

This October, Sinai University officially joined the Environmental Physiotherapy Agenda, becoming the first university in Egypt to do so. With the prompt support of the Dean of the Faculty of Physical Therapy, Prof. Awny Rahmy, a session was organized for physical...

Physiotherapy and the Philosophy of Anti-Planetary Practice

In a recent article in Cosmos and History, I try to reconstruct the implicit belief systems of people who work against the Earth. Athletes like gymnasts and pole vaulters are counted among these anti-planetary practitioners, and so are many physiotherapists. For all...

A reflection on physiotherapists role in the One Health Model

I was attending a forum a few weeks ago when the “One Health” model became the topic of discussion. The One Health Model became popular in the SARS era of 2003-2004 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024a). This model has been circulating since the 1800s...

What are ecosystem services and what do they mean for physiotherapy?

The environment has long been recognised as a determinant of health (Dahlgren & Whitehead, 2021). While determinants of health may be protective, health promoting or risk factors (Dahlgren & Whitehead, 2021), the narrative regarding the relationship between the...

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