Contributions of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences for social and professional integration of customers

Abstract

Introduction: the speech therapist works in various professional contexts, making various interventions, which can be analyzed as the possibilities for participation of Speech in social integration and professional customers. Objective: To investigate the perception of interviewees about its performance contributes to the social and professional integration of its customers. Methods: Patients: (60 audiologists) the technique of snowball sampling from disclosure made by mail on the contact lists of speech was used. They answered a questionnaire administered in an online format (GoogleDocs®) for the characterization of participants and two essay questions related to social/ professional integration of customers. After characterizing this group of subjects, the qualitative analysis established 12 categories to subsequent analysis from the answers to essay questions. Results: The subjects were predominantly women (93.3%), with less than 41 years old (71.7%), formed less than 10 years (57.3%), working in the area of voice (35%), language (21.3%), Motricity/oral (18.4%), hearing (16.5%), Health/Public (8.8%) in the state of São Paulo (73.3%), in the context clinical and hospital (56.7%). On the importance of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences for insertion/social integration/professional category was the most mentioned “improved communication” (18 to 32.2%) and “improved quality of life” (25-33.4%). Conclusions: The speech therapists perceive their role as important for social and professional integration of their clients/patients, mainly by contributing to improved communication. Inquiries and research in this field is important to alert councils and other associations of the need for projects that enable access of the population to Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences