Impact Report 2023 Translation Quality Survey
Who We Are
Language Services is a team that is newly established within the Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH). The aim of establishing this team is to have a centralized system in place, so to better provide our communities with equal health care access by lifting cultural and language barriers.
How We Got Here
Language and cultural barriers can pose challenges such as navigating the health care system and accessing health care. A way around this is to have a systemic approach to ensure that materials and communications that are important for patient care are translated into different languages, and to make sure that the translations are contextually accurate and culturally appropriate.
In August 2020, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) initiated a review of translation practices across the region. VCH worked with an external advisory group comprising representatives from neighbourhood houses, S.U.C.C.E.S.S., Mosaic, Immigrant Services of BC, Provincial Health Services Authority, VCH staff, and medical staff to guide a comprehensive stakeholder engagement process.
Across all engagement efforts, we hear that translation should be centralized to ensure translation quality and consistency. A systematic and centralized approach will allow us to make sure that the translations are contextually accurate and culturally appropriate, and that we would be able to continuously provide patients with access to translated materials be it in-person materials or information online. The review informed the VCH Translation Framework as well as Language Services.
What We Do
Language and cultural barriers can pose challenges such as navigating the health care system and accessing health care. One way to provide comprehensive health care services to our communities, is to translate health care materials into different languages within the VCH service areas. These health care materials include but are not limited to patient education materials, self-care guidebooks, handouts, brochures, information bulletin on vch.ca, and various materials on topics such as post-anesthesia care, medical procedure preparation, newborn care, long-term care home, so on and so forth.
What We Hope to Achieve
We hope that by sharing with our communities what we have achieved together throughout the year will bring us closer than ever. By building on the work from the previous year and through countless dedication of hours and engagement across all efforts with our staff and communities, we hope to share with you what we have all accomplished this year, to drive our communities forward in a positive light.
How You Can Get Involved
We would like your feedback. Here at VCH, we highly value our engagement with our communities, and we would like to see whether the translated materials have made a difference in your experience accessing health care services. If you would like to provide suggestions or reach out to us for any translation related concerns, please email young.joe@vch.ca
How you Can Provide Feedback
We are listening. Should you have stories or feedbacks regarding language and culture or translation that you would like to share with us, please send your email to young.joe@vch.ca