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. 

From the body as physical therapy to environmental physiotherapy

Fitting the time of reflection that is this time of the year, over the last few weeks I've been reflecting a lot on what it is that actually brought me to thinking about environmental physiotherapy. In many ways, these reflections were actually inspired by the...

Moving physiotherapy outdoors

Lancashire and North West England. The wettest part of a wet country. So, maybe not the first place one would think of when developing a business model incorporating outdoor rehabilitation. However, the flip side of our, at times, particularly soggy climate brings a...

A walking-based program to address the physical, mental and social aspects of low back pain: A single-case study

Last sprint in this Bachelor of Physiotherapy. Our bachelor thesis needs to be innovative! Looking for a partnership with a technology company to use micro sensors to assess the gait quality of patients. A professor comes with another great idea: prove that a...

The Healing Power of House Plants in Physiotherapy Clinics

In physiotherapy, where the focus is on the patient’s pain, and restoring optimal function, there is a tendency for a myopic view of rehabilitation. While the greatest attention should be given on providing a quality assessment and intervention, the environment where...

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