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. 

Nature-connectedness as a tool in physiotherapy

Many have published here their thoughts and experiences about bringing physiotherapy outdoors, in natural spaces or urban green spaces. But what is it about these spaces that can improve the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions? Is it as obvious as we might...

Seeing as Caring part one: Witness

My artwork is a product of intuition. I am unable to preconceive of an image and make art reliably. It has to come from a place I cannot speak to directly. It has to come in its own time. This facet of my work comes from somewhere different than the part of my brain I...

Planetare Gesundheit in ErgoLogoPhysio – Welche Rolle spielen wir in der Klimakrise?

Die Health for Future Arbeitsgruppe ErgoLogoPhysio (ELP) lädt zusammen mit der Planetary Health Academy der Deutschen Allianz Klimawandel und Gesundheit e.V. (KLUG) zu einer kostenlosen, interaktiven Online-Veranstaltungsreihe zum Thema „Planetare Gesundheit in...

Environmental physiotherapy and ENPHE The European Network of Physiotherapy in Higher Education

Exciting news seem a near regularity in environmental physiotherapy now. And why not. With so much that still needs doing, we need them very much. The latest in the series, effective as of today, is a new partnership with ENPHE - The European Network of Physiotherapy...

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