Barriers to mental health services for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder in Brazil: protocol for a qualitative evidence synthesis and citizen panel (BARRIER-Free-BR Project).

This is a research plan to study the barriers families face when trying to access mental health services for autistic children in Brazil. Researchers will review existing studies and work with families to understand what makes it difficult to get the mental health support their children need. The goal is to help improve services by identifying the main problems families encounter.

This protocol describes the BARRIER-Free-BR Project, a comprehensive study examining barriers to mental health services for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Brazil. The research employs a three-step approach: stakeholder engagement to refine research questions, qualitative evidence synthesis of Brazilian studies focusing on family and caregiver perspectives, and a citizen panel to validate findings. The study specifically considers social, racial, and gender aspects affecting service access. The protocol emphasizes stakeholder engagement and aims to provide evidence-informed insights to inform policy decisions regarding autism mental health services in Brazil.

As this is a protocol paper, clinical implications cannot be determined. Once completed, this research may inform policy and service improvements for autism mental health services in Brazil by identifying key barriers from family perspectives.

This is a protocol paper describing planned research rather than completed study results. No actual findings, sample characteristics, or outcomes are reported. The limitations of the planned methodology cannot be assessed until the study is conducted.

The perspectives of stakeholders directly affected by mental health services for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are essential for the quality of these services. However, it is crucial that these perspectives are informed by the best available evidence and adapted to the local context. This study aims to analyse barriers related to mental health services for children and adolescents with ASD from the perspective of families and caregivers, considering social, racial and gender aspects. Three steps will be taken: stakeholder engagement through an online meeting to refine the research question and understand the magnitude of the problem; (b) qualitative evidence synthesis using five databases and grey literature to identify studies that have collected and analysed qualitative data on barriers to mental health services for children and adolescents with ASD in Brazil.

Only studies conducted in Brazil that consider the perspectives of family members and caregivers will be included. (c) A citizen panel with families of children and adolescents with ASD will be used to discuss and validate the synthesis findings. We will provide a set of evidence-informed and stakeholder-experienced barriers to mental health services for children with ASD in Brazil. This represents an effort to engage stakeholders in evidence descriptions to inform policy. We plan to disseminate the findings through various means, including peer-reviewed journal publications, presentations at national conferences, invited workshops and webinars, patient associations and academic social media platforms.

The project was approved by the Ethics Committee for Research at the University of Sorocaba (approval number 78747224.7.0000.5500). Open Science Framework-10.17605/OSF.IO/DVAKG.