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. 

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...

Nature as co-therapist: Physiosail and the connection between disability and environment

The definition of disability and disabled people depends on the model used. The most widely used model in the health system is the "medical model". It assumes disability as an individual mental or physical impairment that is independent of environmental conditions. In...

Showcasing the Potential of Student Research at the Fourth Environmental Physiotherapy Roundtable

For the fourth year in a row, toward the end of November each year since the launch of the EPA, we have hosted an environmental physiotherapy roundtable - an opportunity to come together amongst different groups of colleagues to share our thoughts and discuss and...

Measures for improving the environmental sustainability of Norwegian physiotherapy services

It does not take a lot to understand that climate change is a problem too big for anybody to solve on their own. Truthfully, it can be overwhelming and demotivating, feeling that you are fighting on your own against the world. I recently wrote my bachelor's thesis in...

If you have any thoughts, ideas or questions about environmental physiotherapy,
we would love to hear from you anytime

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