Planetary Health Report Card

The Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) is a global initiative where students assess their health school and wider campus’s incorporation of sustainability in their teaching, research and university culture. The PHRC has been adapted for occupational therapy for the first time and piloted at the University of East Anglia by a team of occupational therapy students.

Catherine Potter presents on the work done on the Planetary Health Report Card, developed for OTs with Ka Yan Hess. A discussion with a panel of students using the PHRC explores the benefits and progress made so far.

A recent graduate from the University of East Anglia with an MSc in occupational therapy, Catherine is currently working in a paediatric ASD service based in East London. Over the years, sustainability has been a keen point of interest for her. From participating in environmental leadership programmes at Queen’s University during her BA to volunteering for the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (CSH) since 2022, these experiences have illustrated the increasing urgency of climate change’s impacts on health. During work with the CSH Catherine became familiar with the Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC). She saw an opportunity to expand the PHRC student initiative to encompass occupational therapy too, leading to this current project.
Ka Yan Hess is a senior lecturer in Occupational Therapy at Oxford Brookes University, U.K. She is the curriculum development and implementation lead for embedding planetary health and environmental sustainability for occupational therapy and interprofessional learning. She is passionate about research, scholarly activities and supporting student projects on the intersection of human and planet health. Ka Yan has enjoyed a diverse clinical career supporting the health and wellbeing of adult service users with frailty, mental health, neurological and general medical conditions and challenges both in South Africa and in the United Kingdom across acute, community and charity settings.

The Panel is made up of Poly Moschouri, Ash Fiaz, Alaa Altahir and Ellie Pilkington