This article analyzes the meanings attributed to practices that promote adolescent health by 47 professionals from the Family Health Program in Fortaleza in the State of Ceará. It is a qualitative study in which semi-structured interviews enabled the production of data, subsequently organized according to content analysis, resulting in the following core themes: promoting health associated with injury prevention; limitation of health promotion to the school environment; the lack of health promotion for adolescents in the healthcare service; and partnerships as a viable way of promoting health for adolescents. The health promotion actions were developed in a timely manner and mostly in the pre-natal, family planning, and cancer prevention programs. The health professionals found the school environment to be an important and viable place for a partnership for health promotion actions for adolescents. There was evidence, albeit incipient, of the health professionals' desire to reorient this practice in the healthcare service.
Promoting health; Adolescent; Family health strategy; Health professional