In Conversation: Northern Health Transcultural and Language Services Department Win National Award

In Conversation: Northern Health Transcultural and Language Services Department Win National Award

Interpreting and translation are a critical part of providing services for culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Northern Health’s Transcultural and Language Services Department (TALS) recently won an Australian Institute of Interpreters award for their excellent service provision in health.

ECCV spoke with TALS coordinator Emiliano Zucchi about the innovations and initiatives that have made transformed health service provision in northern Melbourne.

What major changes have you initiated in your four years at TALS to bring about the Australian Institute of Interpreters award?

The four major strategies we have used are:

1. We moved from four to seventeen in-house interpreters.
2. We initiate trans-cultural training sessions in a very strategic way. We now run one hour presentations for health clinicians on topics such as; ‘how to work with a professional interpreter’, ‘what does diversity mean in the health context’, ‘how to work with patients of different religious backgrounds’, and ‘why children should not be used to interpret’. We do approximately 100 one hour sessions per annum.
3. We have introduced a translations database. This means we have hundreds of documents translated in the top eight languages. All the staff we employ are professional interpreters and translators, so we do all of our translating in-house.
4. We changed the parameters to include 25 per cent of all NESB** patients in all Northern Health research projects. We are now more prominent in culturally appropriate research for clinicians both within and outside Northern Health.

You have emphasized the business case for reducing length of stay in hospitals for CALD* patients. How important is it to quantify the benefits of translation services?

We noticed the literature was telling us was better patient outcomes increase with cultural competence. The length of stay of NESB** patients has dropped by about 30 per cent since TALS was restructured.

Increasing transcultural training and interpreting services has had a big impact. We know because we our interpretation 17, 000 in 2008 and over 40,000 in 2011. Using translators helps with cost containment because it aids communication with the patient and reduces consultation times.

How are you integrating technology into your work?

We introduced video interpreting a couple of years ago as a complement to face-to-face interpreting. We are using it, but not as much as we should because there are infrastructure problems. There needs to be a commitment to cameras in every consultation room. The technology is available, but has to be a better commitment.

I will be trialling the use of Ipads in wards this year to better deliver languages services.

Are there particular communities where you are seeing growth the need for interpreters?

It’s one of the issues that we face. New and emerging communities, particularly Horn of Africa and Iraqi, are not big enough yet to produce students who learn languages in a professional way. At the moment we are using effectively bilingual people instead of interpreters. Their language skills in English can be very poor. It is a high risk, but it’s better than using family members or no interpreter at all.  The challenge is to liaise with government and university institutions and schools so they continue to offer and improve current courses for emerging communities. 

What’s also happening is that established communities, such as Italian and Greek, are still using language services as the communities age so those service needs are growing.

What are the advantages or disadvantages of privatising the government translation services?

We support public private partnerships to improve public health outcomes. Agencies will always be needed, especially for the smaller languages and it’s important that is done in the patient interest. It’s important there is more cooperation and greater sharing of resources. 

How well do medical staff understand cultural competency?

At Northern Health is the understanding is good. Doctors are improving but they aren’t as good as they should be. The too often assume they don’t need an interpreter and they can use a family member. I argue that any medical degree should include a cultural competence unit.

Many of your staff interpret difficult news for patients in hospitals. How do you support your staff?

Interpreters can deal with very sensitive situations which can affect them psychology and physically. We have a monthly supervision session for our staff members to share experiences and get things off their chest. I find that the benefit comes from having someone there who listens to what they say.

If you know a CALD community member who should be recognised for their work or achievements in our next e-bulletin, please contact Sarah Hunt shunt@eccv.org.au. 

*CALD – Culturally and Linguistically Diverse

** NESB – Non-English Speaking Background