The celebration of Respiratory Rehabilitation Day began on 21 April 2016, at the initiative of the Portuguese Lung Foundation and endorsed by 12 other organisations (medical societies and associations of health professionals and respiratory patients), including the Portuguese Association of Physiotherapists.
The aim of this initiative is to raise awareness among health policy makers, health funding bodies, health professionals, respiratory patients and their families and society in general that Respiratory Rehabilitation (RR) is an intervention with proven benefits for health in its physical, psychological and social dimensions, But incomprehensibly, accessibility and referral are extremely low. It is estimated that only around 2-3% of the patients who need it have access to rehabilitation programmes adjusted to their needs, a situation that has worsened greatly during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to do so.
Respiratory physiotherapy (a component of the area of cardiorespiratory physiotherapy) refers to the intervention of physiotherapists in respiratory conditions, with disease or at risk of developing it, thus providing care within the scope of prevention, treatment, habilitation and rehabilitation.
Respiratory physiotherapy and the professional who carries it out, the physiotherapist, are fundamental elements that contribute to improving the health condition of the respiratory patient (acute or chronic), whether integrated into multi-interdisciplinary RR teams or in a more direct practice context that does not fit into the concept of Respiratory Rehabilitation. We would also like to highlight the enormous contribution that physiotherapists, both nationally and internationally, have made to increasing knowledge, evidence and implementation of Respiratory Rehabilitation, including new models of practice (telerehabilitation, home-based and web-based).
