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. 

Climate change, biodiversity and sustainability discussed at the Australian national physiotherapy conference

Between the dates of the October 6-8 2023, Brisbane, Australia became home of the Australian Physiotherapy Association’s national conference, IGNITE 2023. I was fortunate enough to attend this conference and was excited and inspired by the keynote presentation titled,...

Environmental physiotherapy education at the In Beta Unconference 2020

In Beta is a virtual community of physiotherapy educators who experiment with different approaches to teaching and learning, make podcasts, publish a newsletter, share project ideas and arrange Unconferences. In Beta’s name reflects the fact that we are always in a...

Giving the right names to emerging areas of environmental physiotherapy practice

As our understanding of the many different connections between physiotherapy and the environment continues to grow, and we advance research and education across the breadth of environmental physiotherapy (EPT), the many implications this has for physiotherapy practice...

Restoring harmony – How pacific indigenous knowledge can help physiotherapists navigate environmental responsibility

It is a privilege to contribute to the conversation of how the physiotherapy profession could, and should, embark on critically evaluating its relationship with the natural environment. In doing this, I draw on the knowledge of my forbears, particularly in Samoa, to...

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