Medical care for deaf people and its challenges

Abstract

Hearing impaired people face numerous obstacles when seeking health services, especially related to communication barriers with attending physicians. The purpose of this literature review was to identify the main challenges encountered worldwide during the medical care of deaf people. A bibliographic search was carried out in the LILACS, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus and ScienceDirect databases. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 21 studies were selected. Doctors and deaf patients report difficulty in understanding each other and agree that the assistance provided would be better if the doctor knew sign language, but only a minimal portion of the professionals had knowledge basics of the subject. Other communication strategies, such as written notes, lip reading and companion as an intermediary, were considered inefficient. The use of qualified interpreters, although considered the preferred method for many hearing impaired, was not accessible to the most. In view of this, deaf people find it difficult to trust their doctors and fear being subjected to inappropriate treatment for communication errors. In this context, it was concluded that the experiences lived by deaf people can generate risks to the health of this population, requiring the development of measures that seek to improve the assistance provided and more investigation on the theme.