Resumo

GUIMARAES DUARTE DOMINGUEZ, Aldira  e  MERCHAN-HAMANN, Edgar. Collective physical therapy: rethinking the role of the physical therapists in Brazil. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2004, vol.30, n.3, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3127.

Traditionally, professional physical therapists have mostly concentrated on clinical and hospital care, limiting the opportunities for research, social work and production of scientific knowledge in general. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze trends and prospects of physical therapy in Brazil and to make a proposal to create a new articulation between physical therapy and the paradigm of health care promotion. The notion of collective physiotherapy stated here may be defined as a specialty of physical therapy that is aimed at epistemologically causing praxis of professional physical therapist in accordance with the physical and motor requirements of the populations. The collective physical therapy is related to social medicine and other related disciplines and then emerges as a possible answer to the challenges that physical therapy faces as a result of the present world realities. Such challenges originate from the advances of health sciences and technologies, new collective needs and imperatives of epistemiological nature. It seems that there is a need for expanding on and delving into the debate about this particular issue

Palavras-chave : COLLECTIVE HEALTH; PHYSICAL THERAPY; HEALTH PROMOTION; PUBLIC HEALTH; COLLECTIVE PHYSICAL THERAPY.