The Graduate Program in Rehabilitation Sciences (PPG-REAB) was approved by CAPES on November 28, 2019, being officially installed at Institute of Health Sciences of the Federal University of Bahia on December 2, 2019. It is the first stricto sensu program, at an academic master's level, of Area 21 - CAPES (Physical Education, Speech Therapy, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy) implemented in the state of Bahia. It presents an innovative proposal for rehabilitation training, considering the social and health aspects of the groups involved, being in line with the UFBA Institutional Development Plan (PDI, 2018).
It is understood the concept of rehabilitation in an expanded way, founded on the social theoretical model in which a social relationship involves barriers and impediments to participation, and not just an individual attribute. Such conception is able to encompass people with disabilities, as well as those with mental disorders, among other groups in vulnerable situations.
This perspective is in line with a way of thinking and doing health, tuned to the principles and guidelines of Unified Health System (SUS) and founded on international parameters, which advocate disability as a human rights issue (WHO, 2012). Studies have demonstrated their intrinsic relationship with poverty, scarcity of services (health, education, social assistance) and all forms of exclusion (ALMEIDA, 2000; SOUZA and PIMENTEL, 2012).