About us

Higher education institution capable of playing a prominent role in the area of human health.

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The Pioneering Reference School

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ESSALCOITÃO is a reference in higher education in the area of ​​human health, focusing on physical, functional rehabilitation and mental health. We train excellent professionals, promote research and development, and collaborate with prestigious universities, municipalities and civil society organizations to improve people’s quality of life.

The Alcoitão School of Health Sciences (ESSALCOITÃO), established by the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML), is a Private Higher Education Institution, pioneering in Portugal in the training of Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, and Speech and Language Therapists. Since its foundation, it has been the reference school in this field. It offers undergraduate courses in Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech and Language Therapy, and provides postgraduate training with study plans adapted to the Bologna Process since the 2008-2009 academic year. In collaboration with the Institute of Health Sciences at the Catholic University of Portugal, it has been developing master’s programs in the areas of Speech and Language Therapy and Physiotherapy. Its teaching has consistently adhered to high standards of quality, accepted internationally, characterized by a balance between academic and practical components from the first year of the courses. The school has over 500 students and a faculty of around 100 academics and healthcare professionals, among the most qualified in the country. The ESSALCOITÃO resulted from the conversion in 1994 of the Rehabilitation School (ERA), which was established in 1966 and continued the training courses in rehabilitation that emerged in Portugal in 1957.

The ESSALCOITÃO envisions itself as a higher education institution equipped to play a significant role in human health, excelling in the training of professionals in physical rehabilitation, functional rehabilitation, and mental health. It is also capable of designing and implementing innovative training programs in social policy and action.

The ESSALCOITÃO aims to partner with prestigious universities, both national and international, complementing them with its areas of expertise and collaboratively developing research and development programs.

The ESSALCOITÃO is committed to continuing its numerous collaborations with municipalities and civil society organizations, deepening its engagement in the community and promoting public health through the prevention and resolution of situations amenable to social rehabilitation.

According to Ordinance No. 22034 of June 4, 1966, from the Ministry of Health and Assistance, the reasons for the creation of the then Alcoitão Rehabilitation School, of the Rehabilitation Medicine Center, are linked, on the one hand, to the entry functioning of the SCML Rehabilitation Medicine Center itself, and on the other with the existence of an established plan for rehabilitation services, at national level, which required the training of duly specialized technical personnel. This Ordinance also states that “… the Rehabilitation Medicine Center of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa currently has unique conditions for the courses to be taught and the internships required for the training of technical personnel specialized in rehabilitation to be carried out, conditions that they must be taken advantage of now, in fact in continuation of the effort made by Santa Casa and the staff with which it will open the Center that initiated it”.

This legal diploma, in addition to authorizing SCML to create a rehabilitation school, at its Rehabilitation Medicine Center, in Alcoitão, adds “to the two groups of technicians and assistants for clinical services referred to in Ordinance 18523, of June 12, 1961 , a third group, which includes technical rehabilitation personnel, which includes physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists, qualified with the corresponding courses”.

The Rehabilitation School was a pioneer in the training of Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists and Speech Therapists, thus filling the gap at national level in the training of these professionals, who only began to be trained in the early 1980s. regular, in other Schools in Portugal.

In 1994, when it became a higher education institution, there were only four schools training physiotherapists, and two training Occupational Therapists and Speech Therapists.

The number of schools offering courses in these areas progressively increased, with ten years later a substantial increase in the number of competing schools, particularly in terms of Physiotherapy and Speech Therapy, and more recently in terms of Occupational Therapy, which makes with the result that ESSA, despite continuing to consider itself a reference school, with a national scope, ends up seeing its candidate recruitment base becoming increasingly regional.

A Higher Education School should have an adequate structure based on statutes that contain the essential rules defined by the Ministry, as well as sufficient premises to enable appropriate development in line with the social context and its specific capabilities. A private higher education school must have its own teaching staff of recognized quality, who are proactive, dedicated, competent, and innovative, established within a defined career path. This staff should be able to attract top professionals as guest lecturers and build lasting relationships in training, research, and community intervention teams, making the institution appealing to the most ambitious and highly qualified students.

The Alcoitão School of Health Sciences seeks to embody these principles. Now equipped with new statutes, including a Teaching Career Statute, and supported by a core of nationally and internationally recognized faculty, with a historical connection to the country’s most prestigious rehabilitation hospital, the ESSALCOITÃO, despite its small size, has the conditions to continue to develop and lead in its fields of expertise.

In summary, the strategic action vectors currently underway and to be developed are:

  1. Consolidate undergraduate and master’s programs.
  2. Strengthen the offer of postgraduate training that does not confer academic degrees:
    • For specific target groups, including professionals in speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy, as well as other healthcare professionals, particularly in partnership with public, social, and private higher education institutions such as the Lisbon School of Nursing, ESSALCOITÃO, the Red Cross Health School of Lisbon, and the Egas Moniz School of Health, along with courses open to all interested graduates who meet the required qualifications, continuing the PRR Impulso Adultos “Lifelong Health Education” funding activity over the next three academic years.
  3. Reactivate the Department of Social Policy and Action, both by continuing the offer of postgraduate training that does not confer degrees initiated this year and by deepening partnerships for the opening of undergraduate programs in this area.
  4. Strengthen and develop scientific research, particularly by creating a new department—the Department of Research, Health, and Society—by establishing a Rehabilitation Research Center in partnership with a university, and by creating an Academic and Clinical Center.
  5. Engage with the community.
  6. Expand and consolidate internationalization.
  7. Establish a PhD program in Rehabilitation Sciences in partnership with a university.
  8. Offer original training programs to new audiences.

3.907

m2 area

1.120

m2 useful area

20

teaching spaces

Building

The building that ESSALCOITÃO owns is a Classified Building and the School has been operating in this location since 1979. Initially (1966) it was planned as a residential home to support employees of the Rehabilitation Medicine Center (CMR) and students of the then School of Rehabilitation, which operated in the CMR building itself. In the current management of spaces, particularly in the teaching part, priority was given to their functionality and versatility.

Computer room

20 work places

Educational Resource Center

23 reading stations and the School’s database accessible via the internet

Training room

Renovated space with PRR support to promote exercise and physical activity

Bathhouses

With shower and lockers for practical classes

Meeting rooms

For collegiate and teaching bodies

Bar

With 80 seats

Services

ESSALCOITÃO offers a set of services that operate in an integrated manner, with intervention in different specific areas, ensuring high efficiency in meeting the needs of our target audience, who seek in ESSALCOITÃO quality-assured responses in the field of education.

The Executive Secretary manages the functional units under the authority of the Director and the Management Board.

  • Arrival and ongoing course support
  • Educational and social counseling
  • Project development

Coordinator: Dr. Ana Cristina Calado

Contact: gae@essa.scml.pt

+351 214 607 450

  • Library
  • Archive

Denise Rebelo

Contact: biblioteca.essa@essa.scml.pt

  • Coordination of International Programs (Erasmus+) and national and international partnerships
  • Promotion of the “ESSAlcoitão” brand and image
  • Coordination and management of website and social media content and dynamics
  • Promotion of the School both externally and internally
  • Marketing and Communication

Dr. Ana Sofia Pedro | Specialist in Communication and Multimedia
Dr. Beatriz Marques | Specialist in Communication and Multimedia
Dr. João Paulo Rodrigues | Specialist in Organization and Management

Contact: geic@essa.scml.pt

  • Student and Academic Records Office
  • General Administration and Archive
  • Personnel

Director: M.A. Joana Cruz
Dr. Sónia Aguiar | Administrative Technician
Rosa Bastos | Administrative Technician
Cátia Paiva

Contact: academicos.essa@essa.scml.pt

  • Conservation and maintenance of assets
  • Procurement
  • General Support
  • Telephone Exchange

Director: Manuel Pires
Ana Maria Caetano | Procurement
Fernanda Reis | Support
Jorge Silva | Support
José Calado | Support
Maria Araújo | Support

Contact: aprovisionamento.essa@essa.scml.pt

  • Application design and analysis
  • User support
  • Student Computer Room

Director: Dr. Tiago Adriano
Dr. Henrique Coelho | IT Specialist

Contact: helpdesk.essa@essa.scml.pt

Board Member of the Management Council: Dr. Manuel Portugal Lage

  • Treasury
  • Asset Accounting
  • Analytical Accounting
  • External Funds

Director: Dr. José António Fernandes
Sandra Sofia Castro
Susana Caturra

Contact: financeiros.essa@essa.scml.pt

Laboratories

Six specialized laboratories and teaching spaces
  • Physiotherapy Assessment Laboratory I
  • Physiotherapy Assessment Laboratory II
  • Speech Laboratory
  • Occupational Performance Laboratory I
  • Occupational Performance Laboratory II
  • Room for practical classes, of multiple use, with laboratory characteristics

Diversity and comprehensiveness in Cooperation Protocols

ESSALCOITÃO has cooperation protocols with Universities and Polytechnic Higher Education Schools, public and private and at European level, guaranteeing its students complementary support in terms of teaching and laboratory and bibliographic resources. As a holder of the Erasmus University Charter, it has bilateral agreements with several European Universities, which allows it to send and receive students and teachers on mobility programs. In order to provide an adequate connection to the fields of professional practice, in addition to the strong connection to the Alcoitão Rehabilitation Medicine Center, and other SCML health services, ESSALCOITÃO also has protocols with more than a hundred health institutions and education, guaranteeing its students the offer of extensive practical experience.

Excellence in documentation and document archiving

It should be noted that ESSALCOITÃO also has a Library and Documentation Center, specialized in its teaching areas, which has been recognized as one of the best equipped in the country. In addition, students also have access to the Rehabilitation Medicine Center Library.

Sensory integration is the neurological process that organizes information from our body and the world around us in order to use it in everyday life. It includes the perception, modulation and integration of sensory information, coming from all sensory receptors (Schaaf et al., 2014), which varies from individual to individual. If the brain is unable to properly integrate sensations, there will be greater difficulties and greater effort will be required to obtain an adaptive response to sensory inputs (Ayres et al., 2005).

Sensory integration is the neurological process that organizes information from our body and the world around us in order to use it in everyday life. It includes the perception, modulation and integration of sensory information, coming from all sensory receptors (Schaaf et al., 2014), which varies from individual to individual. If the brain is unable to properly integrate sensations, there will be greater difficulties and greater effort will be required to obtain an adaptive response to sensory inputs (Ayres et al., 2005).

Class size is reduced, with a maximum of 60 students in theoretical classes, in the case of Physiotherapy, and 40 in other courses. The practical components of the course require a large number of class splits, meaning that the number of teaching spaces in simultaneous use is quite high.