​ESSA belongs to an institution of social solidarity - Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa. The mission is to provide social care to poor people, homeless, elderly and orphans. Health care is included in these services and developed with high standards according to European benchmarks. 

For both (social and health care); ESSA develops undergraduate and graduate studies of social care, physiotherapy, speech therapy and occupation therapy, directed to community care and has been a rehabilitation process for the last 50 years. 

Concerned with the best practices in rehabilitation, ESSA provides dynamic learning strategies according to undergraduate and graduate students' requirements. 

Aware of the complexity of rehabilitation and the actors involved, ESSA also provides professional development (short courses) for formal, non-formal and informal careers. 

ESSA plays an important function in the community, having partnerships with local governments, health centers, hospitals and rehabilitation centers. The staff has extensive experience in rehabilitation clinical practice and teaching. 

Regarding this background, ESSA staff has a grounded experience in the development of master programmes according to the necessities of the community. Also, the collaboration in several other international projects in the UE, Africa and Russia, shows how well established we are to work on an international context.​