About this Research Topic

Background

For many decades, physiotherapy services were characterized by rehabilitative care carried out primarily in hospitals and rehabilitation centers. Despite clinical, educational and research advances, in many parts of the world the imagination of policymakers and administrators in health services remains irremediably linked to large rooms with dozens of stretchers and rehabilitation equipment. From those black and white photographs that are part of the honorable past of the profession, where physiotherapy played (and still plays) a crucial role in caring for victims of wars or those with consequences of polio, the discipline has moved on to a painting of a multitude of colors.

Looking toward the future in the Anthropocene requires more than ever to delve into the roots of the etymology of the term physiotherapy, much more linked to interventions connected to nature than to closed clinical spaces; as much related to health promotion and early intervention as to tertiary, conservative, and contributory procedures. The use of physical agents in their curative, preventive and palliative facets is much broader in physiotherapy than in other health disciplines. But it is also crucial in public health, in the co-design of healthy environments, in health promotion in schools or in global health interventions, to mention just a few. Despite all this, research, practice, and innovative education in this area is often invisible and studies that support this breadth are still scarce.

The current challenges posed by planetary (and human) health require an alternative vision of health care, more linked to healthy environments (home, neighborhood, educational institutions, workplace, leisure spaces, etc.), and a perspective of health interventions as more integrated with society and the environment. The role of physiotherapy in this open space enjoys a growing and strong interest, anchored in part as a response to the reductionism that a relevant part of clinical research grants to physiotherapy, increased with the massive inclusion of technology as a therapeutic and educational mediator.

Incorporating planetary and population health, as well as social and ecological perspectives into physiotherapy pedagogy would facilitate community engagement and sustainability in the field. This open approach to physiotherapy allows not only to transform people's lives but also to bring the seemingly distant premises of planetary health to local action. It is now urgently necessary to bring scientific research in this area to the surface, open new debates and create spaces for future studies based on a more systemic, relational, and questioning conceptions of the discipline and its eco-social role and responsibilities. This Research Topic aims to highlight the role of physiotherapy in nature-based health promotion interventions, in public health initiatives, global health and planetary health approaches, and many more. We will accept all methodologies and study designs, including theoretical perspectives.

To contribute towards the development of this broad scope of physiotherapy, this Research Topic calls for submissions on physiotherapy linked to:
• Natural-based interventions and health promotion;
• Planetary health from a global-local and local-global perspective;
• Global health, ethics, climate justice and human rights;
• Environmental physiotherapy in all its approaches;
• Urban planning and design, green and blue cities/zones, co-participation, governance, and public policies;
• Healthy environments of all types, from broad approaches such as healthy cities to other areas such as healthy schools, universities, workplaces, leisure places;
• Use of raw materials in physiotherapy, sustainability and eco-friendly strategies, outdoors natural spaces, and environmentally responsible interventions;
• Community participation, resilience, climate change, and health promotion;
• Service-learning and community engagement innovative approaches in physiotherapy education.

We would like to send thanks to the following organizations, who are in support of this Research Topic and the articles published: iApS 2030, Environmental Physiotherapy Association and European Network of Physiotherapy in Higher Education.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Natural environment, Health promotion, Public health, Global health, Planetary health, Service-learning, Community engagement, environmental physiotherapy, sustainability, sustainable healthcare

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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