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. 

Sugar consumption is bad for human health, but have you thought about the effect of sugar production?

We are all aware of the negative health effects associated with sugar consumption, but have you thought about the planetary health implications of its production? Holidaying in Far North Queensland a few years ago brought home to me the scale of the destruction of the...

One step at a time: Environmental PT through the lens of a developing country

The healthcare industry must promptly recognize its environmental impact and act with greater urgency. Despite the rapid technological progress, healthcare continues to consume natural resources and worsen pollution. There's an immediate need for the healthcare sector...

Challenging assumptions: thinking and practising beyond the biopsychosocial model of health

If you are a healthcare professional like me, I am sure you have heard about the biopsychosocial model of health. This model was proposed by George Engel in 1977 to challenge the prevailing biomedical approach in psychiatry, as well as medicine, more broadly (Engel,...

Centering (climate?) justice in physiotherapy

In the two decades that I have been a member of this profession, I cannot recall an instance when justice was a central topic for physiotherapists. With many physiotherapists self-conceptualizing as experts of movement or physical function, maybe this oversight is...

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

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