Introduction

Traditionally the Goulburn Valley and Campaspe regions, along with other rural areas in Victoria, have been home to many post-war migrants who arrived in the early 1950’s, many of whom never acquired the English language due to lack of opportunity or isolation, or as they have grown older have reverted to their mother tongue.

In the Goulburn Valley Region, this first influx of immigrants was followed in the late 1990’s by the arrival of refugees from countries such as Iraq, the former Yugoslav Republic and Albania. The rapid influx of these groups has highlighted language barriers in accessing primary care services.

In response to these issues, Goulburn Valley Primary Care Partnership (GVPCP) and the Central Health Interpreter Service Inc. (CHIS) applied for and received funding under the Department of Human Services Primary Care Partnership Best Practice Funding Program to undertake the “Quality Language Services in Rural Primary Care Settings” project. The project was undertaken in collaboration with Campaspe Primary Care Partnership and the Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District and built on work previously undertaken with CHIS and Goulburn Valley Health.

The project aimed to identify opportunities for best practice development in the provision of interpreting and translation services to enable better access to rural primary care services for people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In particular the project has sought to address the unique circumstances of rural services by:

  • Developing and testing collaborative and best practice approaches to quality language service provision in rural primary care settings.

  • Documenting best practice approaches and disseminating this to PCP member agencies and across PCP catchments.

  • Developing sample policies and procedures on how to work effectively with health interpreters and translators.

The Quality Language Service Provision toolkit has been developed to provide a practical resource for rural primary care providers and aims to assist PCP member agencies in providing effective and efficient language services to their Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) clients and communities. The manual includes best practice examples which have been developed and field tested through the pilot projects undertaken as part of the best practice project. A copy of the full project report, detailing the outcomes of these pilot projects, is available through the GVPCP.

The toolkit is a practical “hands-on” resource that will provide PCP member agencies with processes, policies and procedures that are easy to follow and to apply and can be adapted to suit the needs of individual organisations and communities.

The purpose of the manual is to:

  • Provide practical information and resources, which can be adapted to suit individual agency requirements.

  • Provide an understanding of best practice approaches for meeting the communication needs of CALD clients.

  • Encourage agencies to provide and maintain a high quality standard of language services.

  • Enhance staff awareness and use of best practice approaches to quality language service provision.

This toolkit is not intended to be prescriptive, and needs to be implemented in the context of the varying needs, settings, and capacity of each individual agency. Some agencies may be able to implement many of the processes described, whereas others may only be able to implement some.

The toolkit is presented in a format designed to enable agencies to add or replace sections as new material is developed or revised. It is intended and expected that the toolkit will compliment other resources, such as the Better Ethnic Access to Services (BEATS), to support responsiveness to the needs of CALD clients and communities.

The toolkit can be accessed electronically through the GVPCP Knowledge Exchange website at www.gvpcp.org.au/ and also from the RIAC website www.riac.org.au. Copies of the “Quality Language Services in Rural Primary Care Settings” project report are available in hard copy through the GVPCP office.

Your feedback on the toolkit is welcome, and can be directed to:

Equity and Access Coordinator
Regional Information and Advocacy Council Inc.
PO Box 1763
Shepparton VIC 3632
Email: po@riac.org.au

Debra Cottrell
Chair
Goulburn Valley Primary Care Partnership