Bilingual education about palliative care is opening doors to better health

MCWH has played a key role in raising awareness across Victoria about the benefits of Palliative Care, through the Culturally Responsive Palliative Care Community Education project, in partnership with Palliative Care Victoria and the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria. For the past few months Bilingual Health Educators have been visiting community groups to deliver information in Turkish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Maltese, Italian and Vietnamese and we’ve had a wonderful response.

Mr. Danh Duc Tran, the Chair of the Vietnamese Senior Citizens Group of Hume, took the time to send our Health Education Team feedback from participants who:

… talked very highly about your way of delivering the topic: culturally correct and appropriate when addressing the audience (being elderly Vietnamese); self-confident, showing mastery of the topic, excellent communication skills, and good emphasises on important points. They do wish you all the best, and send you a big thank you.

Having learned about Palliative Care, the Vietnamese Senior Citizens Group of Hume have now booked MCWH for an additional 6 information sessions covering a new health topic each month. Mr. Tran said:

Educational seminars on health topics such as what you are providing are desperately needed by our members … most of the 70+ of our group’s members are aged over 65, and they have been encountering a multitude of health issues, which due to their language deficiencies, they could not discuss properly or in detail with their family doctors or health services providers. Now they do have a chance to understand their health problems, the preventative measures they are to take, and where they could get help or treatment: all thanks to you and your organisation. What else can they ask for?

If you belong to a community group that would like to learn more about health and Australian health services in a language other than English,  you can arrange for MCWH Bilingual Health Educators to visit you or request free information about health topics in over 70 languages by contacting MCWH.