Health Care Interpreter Services:
Strengthening Access to Primary Care
The Toronto-based Healthcare Interpreters Network
in partnership with the national organization Critical Link Canada
are pleased to announce the receipt of funding from the Primary
Health Care Transition Fund, Health Canada to support a very important
initiative to be implemented in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver
between January 2004 and March 2006.
The objective of the project is to initiate, implement
and evaluate a series of activities which address the importance
of trained spoken-language interpreters in the delivery of primary
health care services to patient populations who have limited proficiency
in English and French. The anticipated outcomes of this initiative
are:
-
The development of a statement of standards
to guide the delivery of spoken language interpreter services
in the health care sector
-
Recognition of the need for professionally
trained and accredited language interpreters in the primary
health care sector in particular and the health sector in
general
-
The promotion of policies for the accreditation
and regulation of spoken-language interpreters in the health
care sector
Achieving the objectives and the vision which underlie
this initiative will not be possible without the engagement of
key stakeholders, including:
-
Primary health care providers
-
Providers of health care interpretation service
-
Patient populations with limited proficiency
in English and French
-
Language interpreters in the health care
sector
-
Colleges and Universities committed to the
development of training programs for language interpreters
in the health care sector
The project is committed to:
-
A process of ongoing communication with the
key stakeholder populations throughout the life of this project
-
The collaboration of key stakeholders in
the process
-
A national consultative and consensus building
approach
-
Broad dissemination of the results through
Critical Link Canada
-
Broad sectoral support and ownership of the
outcomes, which will influence practice models for the future
of primary health care in Canada
The projects’ management structure is designed
to contribute to the achievement of the objectives and the attainment
of the commitments outlined above.
The overall direction and management of the project rests with
a Project Management Committee, which includes
representatives from the Project’s sponsoring organisations
and its partner affiliates:
-
The Healthcare Interpretation Network, Toronto
-
Régie régionale de la santé
et des services sociaux de Montréal-Centre
-
The Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration
-
The Provincial Health Services Authority’s
Provincial Language Service (British Columbia)
-
Université du Québec en Outaouais
-
Vancouver Community College
-
Access Alliance, Multicultural Community
Health Centre, Toronto, which holds fiscal responsibility
for the project
- Critical Link Canada
The implementation of the project’s activities
at its three sites – Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver –
will be in the hands of local Project Advisory Committees
whose role is to ensure the representation and input of stakeholder
populations into the development, implementation and evaluation
of the project.
The following provides a broad-stroke outline of
the project’s activities over the next two years:
Phase 1 – December 03 – November
04 – Research. Activities to include:
-
An investigation, analysis and documentation
of the current approaches employed by targeted providers of
primary health care in delivering care to patient populations
with whom the service provider does not share a common language
-
The identification, analysis and documentation
of approaches and models utilised in the delivery of language
interpretation in targeted areas of the primary health care
sectors
-
The provision of options for consideration
regarding potential interpreting service models, which might
be most effective in meeting the identified needs of targeted
primary health care sectors
Phase 2 –December 2004 –September
2005 -
Phase 3 - October 2005 – March 2006
-
Pilot testing of the interpreter training
program, and service delivery
-
Project Evaluation and completion of Final
Report
It is understood that activities of each phase will,
to a large extent, be determined by the activities, accomplishments,
and findings in the preceding phase.
The Healthcare Interpretation Network and Critical
Link Canada are hosting a one-day forum on March 22, 2004 in Toronto
on the theme Quality Healthcare for Linguistically Diverse Patient
populations. To view a flyer for the forum, click
here. To view a brochure for the forum, click
here.
Further general information
about the project may be obtained by contacting dianaabraham@sympatico.ca
