The shelter for children and adolescents: considerations on the role of the occupational therapist

Abstract

This article addresses the role of occupational therapists in shelters for children and adolescents. It introduces the shelter both as a protection procedure established by law, the Statute of the Child and the Adolescent, and a refuge whose proposal and dynamics still need improvements. It starts by making a historical review of care received by the abandoned children since colonial times. This work makes also considerations about the action occupational therapist may undertake and raise limit-situations which have to be overcome.