Assistência à saúde: perspectiva dos surdos

Abstract

Objective: To understand health care, from the experiences of deaf people in public services. Methodological path: A descriptive-analytical study, with a qualitative approach, conducted from January 2011 to August 2012, in a public service to people with disabilities. Interviews were conducted individually with 11 deaf people above 18 years of age, who communicated in Libras, being filmed in MP4 format, transcribed and translated into Portuguese. Socioeconomic data were collected as well as data regarding issues and the experiences of deaf people in public health services. The number of participants was determined by saturating the content of speech. Data were analyzed using content analysis of Bardin. Results: three articles emerged as a result. They were entitled: Accessibility of the deaf population to public health services; Communication as an essential tool for health care to deaf people, and Health-disease process: knowledge and source of information of deaf people. Conclusions: Respondents showed a predominance of males with a mean age of 30.6 years and as the most prominent feature with an education level of, at least high school, however, they haven t demonstrated knowledge and basic concepts of health and disease. They evaluated negatively the assistance they receive in public health services, because of the dependence on listener companions and indignation by the lack of Libras interpreter, even with reservations, and the unpreparedness and lack of deaf culture by professionals in health care.