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. 

Active Transport: Ideas to improve the health of patients and planet

How many of your patients arrived to their physio appointments last week by car? For me, it was 100% of those not opting for telehealth. An empty bike rack sat outside the clinic and nobody approached from the bus stop across the street. Granted, it is winter in...

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...

A clinic without walls

Like many others, I started out in traditional physiotherapy settings with white clinic rooms, adjustable treatment tables and a gym. But over time, I began to feel increasingly disconnected from the people I was trying to help. Patients come into our world with their...

Implementing environmental physiotherapy learning outcomes in the new UK MSK Advanced Practice Standards

We have all come across learning outcomes (LOs) that form the backbone of accredited physiotherapy programmes and standards of practice. Physiotherapy academics spend hours developing LOs, a task where you try to find the balance between Oracle-of-Delphi-ambiguity and...

If you have any thoughts, ideas or questions about environmental physiotherapy,
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