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. 

Aktive Schulwege: Vorstellung zweier Workshops für Grundschulkinder und deren Eltern

Was können Physiotherapeut:innen beitragen um einen Beitrag zur Nachhaltigkeit zu Leisten? Diese Frage stellen sich viele in der Health for Future AG ErgoLogoPhysio. Eine der verschiedenen möglichen Antworten war, einen Weg zu finden, dass mehr Grundschulkinder ihren...

Physiopunk – Speculative fiction for future physiotherapies

Environmental and sustainability education is often conspicuous in its absence from public health and healthcare professional programmes around the world. Yet to respond to the diverse and complex social, ecological and health challenges we are facing everywhere today...

15 ways to practise environmental physiotherapy

As we embark on the journey of developing and practising an environmentally responsible physiotherapy, it seems of paramount importance to recognise that we are not setting out in a vacuum. There is a considerable number of quite readily available approaches for...

Building a bridge between landscape architecture & physiotherapy

Physical Environment & Health It is well documented that the physical environment influences population health, has an impact on chronic diseases and could have a preventative role on human’s health and wellbeing by promoting physical activity (Sallis et al.,...

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