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. 

Nachhaltigkeit im Praxisalltag und der Physiotherapie im Allgemeinen – Präsentation auf der TheraPro 2020 in Stuttgart

New EPA member Hannah Krappmann is grabing the bull by its horns and will be presenting her thoughts on sustainability in physiotherapy at the TheraPro Fair and Congress in Stuttgart Germany between 07.-09.02.2020. Hannah also serves as a current board member in the...

Have we ever treated patients yet? Actor-network theory and the changing patient in a changing world

Have you ever wondered who or what the patient truly is? In medicine, the patient is defined as “a person who is ill or undergoing treatment for a disease.” (Dictionary, 2023) Yet, in my opinion, this definition paints a narrow, one-dimensional portrait of the patient...

Natur Mensch Künstliche Intelligenz und Kultur

Wie eine deutsche Physiotherapie-Zeitschrift (1) im Juli 2020 veröffentlichte, sind in der Forschung Therapiemethoden in der Erprobung, die eine weitere Elektrifizierung der Physiotherapie zur Folge hätten. Die zunehmende Elektrifizierung von Lebenswelten verändert...

L’Université de Sherbrooke cherche à donner l’exemple pour faire avancer la physiothérapie environnementale.

Le symposium des programmes d’ergothérapie et de physiothérapie (SAPEP) de l’Université de Sherbrooke a lieu chaque année au début de mai. Cet événement crée une opportunité pour l’École de réadaptation de réunir au campus des membres de l’école avec des personnes...

If you have any thoughts, ideas or questions about environmental physiotherapy,
we would love to hear from you anytime

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