Exploring the barriers and facilitators to health care services and health care information for deaf people in Worcester

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The deaf community face similar access barriers to health care services and information as do otherlinguistic minority groups. Amongst others, this includes limited access to English communication,misunderstanding of medical terminology, irregular contact with health care professionals of the samelanguage and cultural background and the need to overcome the challenges experienced by using othersas interpreters in a health care setting. Barriers to the written and spoken word limit access to healthcare information as deaf people cannot overhear conversations, have limited access to mass media andpresent with low literacy rates. The South African Constitution stipulates that every citizen has an equalright to health care services and should not be unfairly discriminated against, on the basis of language.Unfortunately, despite what is written in the Constitution, the reality is that many South Africans aredenied equal access or receive compromised access to health care services because of languagebarriers. The lack of access to interpreters at health care facilities across South Africa inhibits patientsfrom expressing themselves correctly and limits the providers' professional ability to make a correctdiagnosis and provide relevant information.The current study explores the barriers and facilitators to accessing health care services and health careinformation for people who are deaf in a relatively well-resourced setting. A sample of deafparticipants from the National Institute for the Deaf in Worcester were interviewed to gain anunderstanding of problems experienced with accessing health care services and health care information.Participants reported communication and socio-economic factors as barriers to accessing health careservices. The main barrier to accessing health care information was considered to be the inaccessibilityof the mass media. Recommendations were made by participants on ways to improve access to healthcare services and health care information for the deaf population of South Africa.Keywords: Health care acces, Health care information, Deaf, Worcester, Barriers and facilitators tohealth care services.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University