Discourses of professionals and adolescents about the access of adolescents to Health Services in Venezuela, 2017

Abstract

The aim was to analyze the discourses of professionals and adolescents about the factors that hinder and potentiate this population’s access to health services (HS) and the effects it generates in the scope of equity in a Venezuelan state. Twelve interviews were conducted with adolescents and 12 with professionals, based on the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and the triangular structure of Thiede, Akweongo and McIntyre. The results were structured around three themes: the power of stereotypes and beliefs; the law outside the right to health; and building humanized practices. The judicial-legal framework admits unacceptable contradictions that amplify inequalities. Age predominates as a barrier to consultation for alone adolescents, although it is not perceived by professionals and is accepted as a mandatory requirement. Adolescents claim the right to be respected, listened and cared when they are alone. Some professionals defend the rigid application of norms that limit access, and others try to generate forms to guarantee rights. The discourses that confront the hegemonic must be valued because they show that it is possible to facilitate the access with strategies that focus the users. Trust appears as an important value in the formation of links between professionals/adolescents. The gap between professional/adolescent perspectives influenced by organizational culture are elements for (re)thinking new institutional positions in HS to facilitate the access. The CDA makes it possible to give a voice to minority groups (adolescents), identifying strategies to achieve equity in access to the HS.