'There's no occupational beings without the planet': Climate Change and Occupational Therapy

By W. Ben Mortenson & Alexander Bird

Climate change is increasingly being recognized as the greatest threat to global health as it has caused a drastic increase in extreme weather events (e.g., storms, floods), poor air quality (caused by fires and pollution), and infectious diseases spread by mosquitoes and ticks. It also disrupts food production and can have negative effects on the social determinants of health (e.g., reducing livelihoods and reducing access to health care and education. Climate change disproportionately affects those who are already systemically disadvantaged and Canada is warming at twice the global average (three times the global average in the artic). Although green-house gases produced by health-care services contribute to global warming, they can also try to mitigate the effects of climate through their purchasing practices, focusing on prevention and wellness and increasing access to virtual services.

Given occupational therapists role in facilitating activities of daily living, we conducted a study to find out how they perceived their role related to climate change. We interviewed twelve occupational therapists including four occupational therapy researchers. Our analysis identified three main themes. The first theme “‘Climate change is real’: Negotiating climate change personally” revealed the distress that therapists experienced in relation to the ongoing climate crises and strategies they implemented as individuals to address this issue through life-style change and advocacy. The second theme “‘There's no occupational being without the planet’: Struggling with climate change clinically” emphasized how people and their environments are reciprocally linked, and emphasized how occupational therapists could help reduce the impacts of climate change by providing interventions to help individuals deal with climate distress, proactively address potential extreme weather events and promote the sustainable provision of assistive devices (e.g., supporting equipment loan programs, purchasing products that are produced responsibly) and changing the way they practiced (e.g., providing more virtual services, trying to reduce driving distances by planning visits based on location). The final theme, “‘We need to use our voice’: Confronting climate change professionally” emphasized the need for more collective responses to climate and inclusion of more indigenous perspectives. This theme highlighted how health care professional organizations should champion climate change initiatives and universities should make curriculum changes to ensure new graduates have better climate literacy.

The findings of this study emphasize how health care professionals like occupational therapists are distressed about the climate crisis and are acutely aware about how health care services contribute to climate change. At the same time, participants were optimistic about how occupational therapists and other health-care professionals could potentially reduce carbon emissions by changing, promoting health and well-being (i.e., preventing people from needing to access health care services), helping individuals make more sustainable choices and working collaboratively within and across health care professions to avoid making addressing climate change a purely individual responsibility. Participants also highlighted the recent development of new resources and networks such as Cascades which is an organization that supports the implementation of sustainable healthcare practices. The findings of the study are congruent with much previous research in the area, but also highlight the need to work collaboratively with disadvantaged populations so that climate change solutions do not further disadvantage these vulnerable groups.

Ultimately, the findings suggest that addressing climate change within the health care sector is not only about reducing harm but also about reimagining health care delivery in a way that promotes resilience, equity, and long-term sustainability for both people and the planet.

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Article details

The Perceived Role of Occupational Therapists in Climate Change
Jiayi Du, Alexander Bird, Giovanna Boniface, Jeffrey Boniface, and W. Ben Mortenson
DOI: 10.1177/00084174241259304
First Published: June 11, 2024
Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy

About the Authors

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Alexander Bird graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Master's degree in Occupational Therapy in 2023. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Health Sciences from Thompson Rivers University, completed in 2020, and began his journey in the healthcare field by earning a diploma as a Therapy Assistant in 2014. His commitment to sustainable health practices drives his innovative approach to occupational therapy, aiming to enhance well-being while respecting environmental considerations.

W. Ben Mortenson has been an occupational therapist since 1991. He is Professor and Head of the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of British Columbia. He held a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2016-2021). He is a principal investigator at the Centre for Aging SMART and the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries. He is an experienced mixed-methods researcher with over 200 peer-reviewed publications. He was the 2021 recipient of the Award for Innovative Practice from the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy (CAOT). In 2022 he was inducted as a CAOT Fellow.