Fala freguês! (Re)pensar o design enquanto ferramenta de integração social: o caso do acesso de migrantes aos cuidados de saúde

Abstract

With an increasingly diverse immigrant population from cultures very different from our own, Portugal is currently facing the challenge of adapting to this new situation and integrating its new inhabitants in a fair and sustainable way. It is essential that this adaptation addresses, first and foremost, the basic needs of this population, with particular emphasis on health. However, language barriers between providers and users make it difficult for these communities to fully access health services. This research aims to explore the contribution of Human Centred Design as a consultation tool, assessing, through questionnaires, which communication tools and procedures are most used and the level of satisfaction of both health professionals and users who do not speak Portuguese. The results point to a negative scenario in terms of overall satisfaction, revealing significant limitations in the National Health Service's ability to mitigate the linguistic barriers faced by non-Portuguese-speaking migrant communities when accessing health services in Portugal. The research concludes by outlining a set of general recommendations aimed at mitigating, as far as possible, the negative picture diagnosed