Psychologists' Perspectives of Service-Access Barriers for Syrian Children with Disabilities in a Turkish Refugee Camp.

Background/

Objectives

Syrian refugee children with disabilities face multiple barriers to accessing essential healthcare, education, psychological support, and protection services. These challenges are often compounded by displacement, poverty, language and documentation difficulties, and limited specialized services. This study aimed to explore these barriers and their interrelated challenges exclusively from the perspectives of practitioners working directly with this population within a refugee-camp context.

Methods

A qualitative case study design was employed, utilizing purposive sampling to recruit 10 Syrian psychologists working directly with children with disabilities in a refugee camp in Hatay Province, Turkey. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using Braun and Clarke's six-step thematic analysis. Data were therefore derived exclusively from practitioners' perspectives and did not include direct interviews or other data collected from children or caregivers.

Results

Five interconnected domains of barriers were identified: trauma and mental health; limited access to general and specialized healthcare; documentation, language, and educational-system barriers; poverty and child labor; and unsafe living conditions and inadequate protection. Participants also described substantial family-level economic and caregiving pressures. However, because children and caregivers were not interviewed, the findings represent practitioner-informed perceptions rather than direct accounts of lived experience or population-level prevalence estimates.

Conclusions

This study contributes to the limited literature by illustrating, from practitioners' perspectives, how disability, displacement, service-access constraints, and protection risks interact within a refugee-camp context. The findings support the development of inclusive and trauma-informed services, proactive screening and outreach initiatives, family-centered support, and coordinated responses across health, education, protection, and humanitarian sectors.