May 2008

Eye and Ear signs community accord

Learning your daughter has a life changing condition is daunting enough but going through the hospital system with English as your second language makes it even harder.

So when Truo Phuong first found out her daughter Natalie was profoundly deaf, she was scared.

With an interpreter helping through the process, however, Natalie, 2, has been fitted with a cochlear implant and is now learning to speak.

Natalie’s was one of several stories shared at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital’s community accord signing—demonstrating the hospital’s commitment to respect all ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic communities.

The signing was attended by Victorian Multicultural Commission Chair George Lekakis, Italian Consul General Francesco De Conno, members of the Eye and Ear’s board of directors, hospital staff and community leaders of culturally-diverse communities.

The accord signing was an initiative of the hospital’s cultural diversity committee.

Patients at the Eye and Ear come from more than 600 Victorian metropolitan and regional postcodes.

The hospital receives requests for interpreter services for more then 60 languages and reportedly is one of the highest users of interpreters in Australia.