June 2007

Multilingual cue cards help patients communicate

Communication between non-English speaking patients and health workers is set to improve thanks to new multilingual cue cards available in 33 community languages.

Launching the cue cards at Box Hill Hospital, Minister Assisting the Premier on Multicultural Affairs Daniel Andrews said the cards were a practical and inventive way of helping health care staff and non-English speaking patients communicate basic messages.

‘There are few things as frustrating as not being able to communicate simple things, particularly when you are sick.

‘The cue cards will greatly help patients and staff overcome this problem.

‘Communication won’t involve charades anymore.

‘Patients won’t have to go through an elaborate miming routine just to get a glass of water and staff won’t have to flick through a dictionary every time they need to tell a patient it’s time to take their medication.’

The cue cards, developed by Eastern Health’s Transcultural Services Unit, use simple pictograms to convey basic words and concepts commonly used in health settings.

Each pictogram is accompanied by the word in English and in the other language.

Mr Andrews said the Government was committed to ensuring that health services were accessible and responsive to the needs of Victoria’s diverse communities, as shown in the Government’s Language Services Strategy, which assists non-English speaking patients to more easily use Victoria’s health services.

‘Through the Strategy we have invested significant resources over the past four years into improving communication between health care organisations and Victorians from non-English speaking backgrounds through extensive staff training and by funding innovative projects such as this one.’

Through the Strategy, the Victorian Office of Multicultural Affairs provided funding for the translation of the cue cards into 33 community languages—Greek, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic, Polish, Farsi (Persian),

Spanish, German, Khmer (Cambodian), French, Dutch, Portuguese, Macedonian, Turkish, Croatian, Serbian, Russian, Maltese, Tagalog (Filipino), Korean, Japanese, Albanian, Armenian, Hindi, Hungarian, Tamil, Dari, Amharic, Dinka, Nuer, Somali and Oromo.

•             The cue card order forms are available from the Eastern Health website at www.easternhealth.org.au.