Interpreters are an essential part of care at Bendigo Health, helping empower patients decision-making and management of their condition.
“Interpreter services are utilised a lot in Dental”, said Katherine Basilewsky, Manager of Community Dental Services at Bendigo Health.
“We wouldn’t be able to provide the care and treatment patients need without them.”
“It’s often used for patients whose English is their second language, but it might also be needed for any common barrier to communication, like sign language,” she said.
Interpreters are trained to take the message from English to the language the patient speaks.
Interpreters are skilled at using the right word for the situation and are legally bound by a code of conduct to ensure messages do not change.
The largest language user groups in Bendigo Health are the Karen community (now over 4000 Karen people living in Bendigo) followed by Auslan for the deaf and hard of hearing community, Simple Chinese and Mandarin.
“The Interpreter Service is vital because we wouldn’t be able to perform any medical procedure without having the patient’s full understanding and consent, it would be unethical. Also aftercare is very important of course,” Katherine said.
“We have translated information documents available if verbal translation isn’t required.
We also use OnCall Telephone Interpreters if Bendigo Health translators are unavailable at the time.”
Bendigo Health has two part-time Karen interpreters and four casual Karen interpreters.
It is important Karen interpreters are used when English isn’t understood. Many English words do not have a direct translation into Karen, so our trained interprets have to explain concepts, rather than directly interpret word for word.
There are a few simple things to help decide.
Ask an open-ended question like “Can you tell me why you’re here today?”
Use an interpreter if:
An interpreter is called for both staff and the patient, to ensure messages are relayed clearly.