Physiotherapy and collective health: Challenges and new professional responsibilities

Abstract

The physiotherapist is destining its attention almost exclusively on the cure of patients and their rehabilitation. However, the new epidemic profile and the new logic of organization of the health system suggest the restructuring of this professional practices and the re-definition of the field of the physiotherapist's performance. In this sense, this article aims to discuss the reorientation of the field of the physiotherapy professional performance and the new possibilities of acting at the Unified Health System (SUS). The article starts with a debate about the demographic, epidemiological and nutrition transitions and the new professional demands before the new attendance models. Taking as reference the model of health surveillance and the primary attention as a restructuring axis of the health system, it is highlighted the overcome of the rehabilitation as only level of professional performance and showed the collective model of the physiotherapy as an instrument of reorientation of the physiotherapist's performance. Finally, it is presented some possibilities of the physiotherapist's performance in the basic attention and in the collective ambit.