'World first' initiative gives migrants in Ireland health support in their own language

Translate Ireland chief executive Graham Clifford: 'Ireland and the HSE are leading the way now in terms of migrant health communication and this is a win-win for both the patient and the health service.' 

A video service featuring 17 languages has been launched to assist 600,000 people to navigate Ireland's health system — a "world first", according to public health practitioners.

The 11 videos in 17 languages such as Arabic, Czech, Polish, Ukrainian, and Somalian will help around 13% of the population, the HSE said.

The videos will "offer clear information on important health topics such as how the Irish health system works, accessing different types of healthcare, services that are free, and information on pregnancy, newborn, and maternal health", the HSE said.

Collaboration

The videos were produced by the HSE’s National Social Inclusion Office with support from award-winning public health initiative Translate Ireland, as well as the Irish College of General Practitioners, the HSE’s mychild.ie, the National Immunisation Office, the Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme, and other healthcare workers.

Translate Ireland chief executive Graham Clifford said: “This is a world first. 

While a handful of health systems worldwide provide a limited number of multilingual resources, none offer such a comprehensive resource bank created by medical health workers who have moved to that country

"Ireland and the HSE are leading the way now in terms of migrant health communication and this is a win-win for both the patient and the health service with the potential to improve health outcomes, lead to greater efficiency in the health service and build even closer patient-practitioner relationships."

Dr Margaret Fitzgerald, national public health lead at the Social Inclusion Office: 'Very often, inclusivity benefits everyone.'

The HSE's public health lead for social inclusion, Dr Margaret Fitzgerald, said language and cultural differences could be barriers to people accessing the healthcare they need. 

"These videos provide us with a powerful tool to speak to people living in Ireland in their native language and overcome some of these barriers. Very often, inclusivity benefits everyone.

“The closed captions in the relevant language on each of the videos assist not only people watching in their native language, but also people who are deaf or have hearing impairments, as well as viewers watching with the sound off," she said.

Timely initiative

Dr Kateryna Kachurets, a Ukrainian general practitioner based in Dublin since 2016, said the initiative is timely with the swathes of arrivals from her native country into Ireland since the Russian invasion.

"These videos are a great resource for people from Ukraine whose healthcare system differs in many ways," she said. 

Educating the newly arrived Ukrainians on various services available to them in Ireland and about screening programmes was of great value to them as well as the Irish healthcare professionals

"As someone who has been practicing medicine here for the last six years, I can relate to the difficulties both doctors and patients are facing when there's a language barrier. I believe that health promotion and education in one's native language are paramount in facilitating better medical care as well as patient satisfaction.”