Challenges for Occupational Therapy education in Latin America for next decade

Abstract

The VI Latin American Meeting of Schools and Teachers of Occupational Therapy (OT) took place in October 2011, at the Faculty of Medicine of USP, being associated with the XII Brazilian and IX Latin American Occupational Therapy Congress, held in São Paulo. The meeting was organized by the Latin American Confederation of Occupational Therapists (CLATO), the National Network of Education and Research in Occupational Therapy (RENETO) and the Departmentof Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy of FMUSP. At the event 160 professionals were present among which 117 Brazilian and 43 from eight Latin American countries and two European. Fifty percent of the Brazilian educational institutions were represented, mainly from the southeast, and 35.8% of the Latin American ones. Invited researchers exhibited about the education in Brazil and Latin America and, about the challenges for higher education in the region. CLATO characterized OT education and, round tables were held about the undergraduate and graduate programs by teachers from Brazil and Latin America. Thirty-five papers were presented in the form of posters: 27 on undergraduate education, 3 on graduate education and 5 on higher education. The final meeting of the event recommended the participation of students in future events, the expansion of the event for two days, and the creation of working groups to organize in advance the thematic debates on the difficulties and potentialities of undergraduate and graduate OT Education for the VII Meeting to be held in Venezuela in 2013.