Climate Change and Disability – Resources and Approaches for Rehabilitation Professionals Now and in the Future

Monday, May 18, 2026

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM PT

Location: 213 & 214

Ideal Audience:Physicians, Residents, Medical Students

Course Director(s)

Steven Faux, MBBS

President
Rehabilitation Medicine Society of Australia and New Zealand

Speaker(s)

Fary Khan, MD

Rehabilitation Physician
Royal Melbourne Hospital
Colleen O'Connell, MD (she/her/hers)

Professor and Medical Director
Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine and Stan Cassidy Centre for Rehabilitation
Marcalee Alexander, MD

Medical Director
Cornell Rehabilitatuon Institute Bethesda East Baptist Health South Florida

Course Outline
3 x 15 minute presentations with Panel Q and A at the end for 10-15 minutes
Chair Prof Faux and Prof Khan
1. Prof Faux - Experiences and procedures for preparing people with disability for climate change events including floods and fires.
2. Prof Coleen O'Connell - Extreme weather preparedness including extreme cold
3. Prof Marcalee Alexander - concepts of Climate change scoence and its impact on healthcare
4. Panel discussion - Are we ready for the impact of climate change on rehabilitation medicine?

Brief Session Description

Climate change, extreme weather events, and their social and health impacts, affect people with living with disabilities (PLWD) significantly, however they often remain an afterthought in adaptation efforts or policy development and planning for climate change preparedness. In this workshop skills in identifying the impacts of climate change on PLWD are presented together with ways of discussing and teaching preparedness.

COI
Unless noted below there are none.
Colleen O'Connell, MD – Disclosed honoraria and research grant funding (Biogen, Tanabe)

Session Objectives:

CanMEDS: Medical Expert. Health Advocate. Scholar.