BARRIERS FACED BY THE DEAF COMMUNITY IN THE STATE OF ALAGOAS IN TIME OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

Introduction: The deaf community has long faced a linguistic and cultural minority paradigm, facing a lack of accessibility to healthcare in Brazil and around the world. This occurs due to a deficit in the professional relationship between doctor and deaf patient, which leads to minimal knowledge on the part of the deaf person regarding the health-disease process. Society is going through chaos and the mental health of its members is being hit hardest by all the episodes of this pandemic. Certainly, the degree of social distancing, adopted as a form of prevention, suddenly affects deaf individuals, given that they do not receive information in the short term. Objective: To investigate the difficulties in accessing information and Primary Care services for the deaf population during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional analytical observational study, of a primary quantitative nature, which consists of a survey of the difficulties faced by the deaf community during the Covid-19 pandemic. Results: It was clear in the results collected that there is a need for an interpreter or a family member to facilitate communication during consultations, due to the incompetence of health professionals regarding Libras. Conclusion: Based on the data collected, it is evident that the obstacles in accessibility to basic health care for the deaf, especially in the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, came from the deficit in communicability between deaf people and health professionals.