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. 

Allied Health Professionals as agents for change: Chief Sustainability Officer’s Clinical Fellow

Over the last 10 years or more, many of us have been gradually moving towards more sustainable choices in our personal lives. Choosing greener modes of transport, making more plant-based food choices, embracing pre-loved clothing and shopping more locally. There is a...

Launching the Environmental Physiotherapy Agenda 2023

Over the last 3 months, the EPA exec and a group of EPA members have steadily been working on our biggest project yet and we are beyond excited to finally launch it today:  The Environmental Physiotherapy Agenda 2023 The Environmental Physiotherapy Agenda 2023 (EPT...

The struggle for the decolonisation of both people and nature

In Aotearoa New Zealand (hereafter Aotearoa), upon the meeting of strangers with Māori (the Indigenous people of Aotearoa), oftentimes you’ll hear the question “Ko wai koe?”, meaning “Who are you?”. The word ‘wai’ also translates to mean ‘water’. Thus for Māori, the...

Come into action: A water project

How hard is it to come into action, specifically concerning environmental issues? If you're honestly planning to save the world, it could be pretty hard! Couldn't it? But even if you don't care about the environment on a daily basis in your job or have had training in...

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