Physiotherapy is defined by Law 528 of 1999 as “a liberal profession, in the area of ​​health with university education, whose subjects of attention are the individual, the family and the community in the environment where they operate. Its objective is the study, understanding and management of human body movement, as an essential element of human health and well-being» (Law 528, 1999).

Twenty-three years have passed since the declaration of said law, which accounts for the professionalization of physiotherapy, moving from dispersed practices, linked to the use of physical agents, to the search for the construction of a critical and emancipatory Ethos as the central axis of the disciplinary task (Niño, 2019).

A little history:
In the history of physiotherapy in Colombia, according to Cobo cited in 2019 by Estupiñan, physiotherapy recognizes three periods that begin in 1920 with the training carried out for nurses and volunteers, giving rise to the need to support physical rehabilitation, a product of the social movements of the time and the polio epidemic that plagued the continent. Subsequently, the period called institutionalization or training consolidation, among whose most important events is the graduation of the first 20 physiotherapists and the creation of the Colombian Association of Physiotherapy, on December 5, 1953, the date on which the celebration of the physical therapist day in Colombia. Finally, given the questioning of professional work, the impact of the first physiotherapists on functionality, social development, well-being, the establishment of international policies in different areas such as work, education and human rights, gave rise to new questions. epistemic aspects that involve in the study of the interaction of Body-Movement-health, which give rise to new fields of action, interest in research processes, from which arises a change in legislation in 1999, the development of the professional profile and some competencies that account for the transformation of the response that the physiotherapist has given to the situations that humanity has gone through (Estupiñan, 2019).

Challenges:
The COVID -19 pandemic has been one of the greatest social phenomena that have occurred in our time and has made visible the gaps and inequities that have emerged from mercantilist societies (Ospina, 2013). Physiotherapy in the path of response to human needs that it has had throughout its history during the pandemic was at the forefront in different actions derived from prolonged confinement, hospitalization, assisted ventilation processes, post-covid rehabilitation, in addition to intramural and extramural assistance in different scenarios and the development of the Colombia Physiotherapy COVID 19 Strategy that allowed, through various actions for the promotion, care and maintenance of health, to face the pandemic, confinement and support professionals (Strategy COVID -19 Physiotherapy, COLFI; Gómez & Espinosa, 2020). However, this continues to generate even more challenges around the implementation of strategies that adapt to uncertainty, the diversity of sequelae, the need to increase academic production that provides a livelihood for work, but also the development of mechanisms that promote an integration of various public entities for a social transformation of environments.

In the same way, mental health has been one of the most relevant issues in society in recent years given the increase in suicide rates, the loss of productive years and with it the questions related to the forms of work, the inequity, the violence of armed groups and the importance of moving from the stigmatizing and individualistic view of mental health to a community, participatory and rights-restoring one that makes evident the social impact that this has on the sustainable development of countries (Peña & Mayorga 2021; Alvis & Guarín, 2020).

Thus, physiotherapy from its field of knowledge, has made various contributions related to physical exercise, the development of intervention strategies such as basal body awareness, but also community interventions related to movement and well-being. The pandemic made evident the need to put mental health on the table as a timeless issue, whose problems were exacerbated by events such as the infodemic, the increase in intrafamily violence, the diversity of mourning that we are going through, the increase in unemployment, emotional exhaustion, work overload and the collective panic generated by the over-coverage of the traditional media. Consequently, Mental Health, in addition to being a topic of interest for public health, poses great challenges in practice for physiotherapy who, through its object of study, has been able to respond to the needs that arise around it with various elements. and strategies, but in which effective linkage is required in multidisciplinary teams that account for the role of the profession, the inclusion in mental health plans, programs and strategies that allow the recognition of the holisticity of being, in addition to continuing to advance in the systematization of professional experiences that make it possible to demonstrate the work (Peña & Mayorga 2021; Alvis & Guarín, 2020).

In conclusion:
Many years have passed since the understanding of physiotherapy as an exercise of the «application of physical means for the treatment of diseases, deformities, invoices» linked to the practice of medicine (Decree 1056, 1954), but as has become evident In its history, the transformation of its work has been linked to the search for recognition in a critical sense, in an attempt to contribute to society, through the deconstruction of its discourses, towards the search for new language, strategies and methods that account for their identity and continue to impact the world through Body-Movement and Health interaction in the search for human development. This is a path that may never end, but the truth is that in order to continue de-constructing and building new paths, it is required, as Niño stated in 2019, that «dialogue come to life in professional coexistence, because in interaction with others acquire self-awareness. That contact and encounter with the other, it should be noted, must be given in a state of openness and empathy with the other» (Niño, 2019).

Bibliographic references:
Guarín,C. L & Alvis, K.M. (2020). Retos dela fisioterapia en Salud Mental. Fisioterapia en salud mental. Editorial Universidad del Rosario.

Estupiñan Ruiz, C. A. (2019). Fisioterapia, filantropía y poliomielitis: actores,
instituciones y políticas internacionales en la conformación de la fisioterapia en Colombia, 1930-1954 (Doctoral dissertation, Universidad del Rosario).

Estrategia COVID-19 Fisioterapia Colombia – COLFI. (s/f). Colfi.co. Recuperado el 9 de diciembre de 2022, de https://www.colfi.co/estrategia-covid-19fisioterapia-colombia/

Niño, C. A. (2019). Ethos de la fisioterapia: reflexiones sobre su carácter de conocimiento. Fisioterapia: Reflexiones desde la academia (Vol. 9). Universidad de La Sabana.
Peña, A. P., & Mayorga, P. A. (2021). Los problemas en salud mental: una pandemia anterior al coronavirus. Hojas De El Bosque, 8(13). https://doi.org/10.18270/heb.v8i13.3483

Ospina, W. (2013). Es tarde para el hombre. Mondadori.

Sánchez, Y. C., Durán, N. R., & Calderón, M. Á. K. (2022). Retos de la Fisioterapia con respecto a la atención de pacientes afectados por COVID-19. Dilemas contemporáneos: Educación, Política y Valores.