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. 

Physiotherapy and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration?

Though the official launch is scheduled for World Environment Day on 5 June 2021, this year marks the beginning of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. This United Nations effort is based on the recognition that 'there has never been a more urgent need to restore...

Exploring the overlaps between occupational health physiotherapy and environmental physiotherapy

Our first-ever Vlog comes from Kathy Roberts, a practicing Occupational Health Physiotherapist in the UK, and Honorary Clinical Academic Fellow at the University of Exeter. Kathy is particularly interested in education and research, and the role of physiotherapy in...

When the Weather Reaches the Body: A Free Book on Human Biometeorology

Physiotherapists know that bodies do not live in laboratories. A patient walks to the clinic through a hot street, a runner trains in cold wind, an older client stays indoors for days because the air is heavy and the pavement is icy. The weather is part of every...

The environment as a tool for patient-centred care: a bridge between physiotherapy and Dance Movement Therapy

For the past few years, body and movement have been the prime focus of my professional and personal life. As a physiotherapist and Dance Movement Therapy practitioner this is not surprising and what my practice has made me realise is that movement is the essence of...

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