Therapeutic Accessibility: the challenges of deaf patients in psychological care

Abstract

Access to psychological treatment is a right of the entire population, guaranteed and protected by public policies and laws. However, it is observed that this service remains restricted for the deaf population due to social and economic determinants. The study aimed to understand the difficulties that the deaf population faces in accessing psychological care, exploring the main demands, challenges in the training of specialized professionals, and in the clinical management of care. This is a qualitative study, in which a bibliographic review and semi structured interviews were conducted, using the Google Meet Plataforma. Six psychology professionals participated in the study, contributing through an interview composed of 12 questions. The participants reported difficulties in their training to work with the deaf population, sharing they did not receive, during their undergraduate psychology education, any specific training on care for this population; knowledge in Libras was only acquired through non-compulsory free courses, not required in academic training. Furthermore, another issue highlighted was the barriers in attending to deaf individuals, which involve linguistic challenges and lack of accessibility to appropriate psychological assessment tools. In addition, clinical management and interventions are hindered by the lack of social inclusion of these individuals, which contributes to isolation and the emergence of psychological issues. Based on the data collected, it was concluded that the deaf population remains excluded from essential mental health services due to the lack of professional training in sing language, combined with the absence of adapted tools for proper care, along with social and economic difficulties.