Study of Barriers to Utilization of Health Services among Deaf/Speech Impaired Patients in Primary and Referral Services in Banjarbaru

Accessibility of health services is an important aspect to ensuring that all individuals, including people with disabilities, receive appropriate and good quality health services. One group of disabilities that often faces challenges in accessibility of health services are people with speech impairments. People with speech impairments rely on sign language to communicate and often experience obstacles to obtaining health information and communicating with health workers. In Indonesia, including in the Banjarbaru City area, accessibility of health services for people with speech impairments is still a problem that has not been resolved properly. The number of informants in this study was 18 informants who were taken using purposive sampling techniques. Qualitative analysis uses the results of in-depth interviews and observations. The results of the study indicate that accessibility of health services for people with speech impairments in the Banjarbaru City Area still has various challenges such as limited training for health workers and communication aids. To respond to this, it is necessary to conduct sign language training, create special SOPs, provide communication aids and other supporting facilities to support improvements in communication and accessibility of health services for people with speech impairments.