All Graduates has run several training sessions on ‘Working effectively with interpreters' , most recently in August 2009.

Interpreting at BreastScreen presents a series of challenges for interpreters and staff:

• Given the demographics of women screened, BreastScreen has high contact with culturally and linguistically diverse migrant women
  
  
• There is heavy demand for BreastScreen services and sometimes there can be a tendency to ‘make do' without interpreters, believing a women's limited English may still be enough for everything to be understood
  
  
• Extensive form-filling in ranges from routine details to complex consent forms for various invasive procedures
  
  
• And, as can be imagined, some of BreastScreen's work is done in situations of high anxiety of women for their bodies and health
  

The objectives of training

To provide participants with an overview of both the Somali and Vietnamese communities in Australia; their background, family and social structures, general customs, health issues; attitudes towards health and towards the health system.

Who participated?

The session was specifically run for Clinical Nurse counsellors with the assistance of two experienced health clinicians of Somali and Vietnamese ethnicity.

Outcomes of the training

A post-training evaluation revealed a high level of approval of the delivery of the session, the relevance of the issues.

Participants were invited to nominate advice that they would give to a new colleague when working with Somali and Vietnamese clients.

    * ‘Some Vietnamese women attending BreastScreen are very traditional in respect to beliefs and attitudes to health and have low English language skills.'

    * ‘Understand the complexity of family relationships and different cultural ideas of time/appointments.'

    * ‘A lot of issues faced by women with a diagnosis of breast cancer are experienced by most women, not just a specific culture.  However there are cultural and linguistic challenges.'

    * ‘This group (Somalis) are very early in their settlement and issues are very “raw”.  They have limited knowledge of the screening program.’ 

For further information on this session or on any training issues, please contact

Maria Maggio De Leo
HR Manager, Contractors
E: recruitment [at ] allgraduates.com.au
Ph: (03) 9605 3000
Ph: 1300 134 746 (local call cost)

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