Navigating the health system when you are sick can be difficult, particularly when English is not your first language.
It has prompted a push for simplified communication in the Australian health system, with doctors and nurses urged to think about the best way to speak with patients about their care.
Seventy-five per cent of Australians with English as a second language have what is called poor ‘health literacy’ – meaning they have a weak understanding of what to do when they are sick, and where to go to get better.
But it’s not just a problem limited to migrants and new arrivals; 60 per cent of all Australians have low health literacy.
60 per cent of Australians have a poor understanding of the country's health system. That jumps to 75 per cent for people with English as a second language. Source: SBS News/Omar Dabbagh
“We know a lot of people come back to our emergency departments with problems around medication, complications,” NSW health literacy and diversity health manager Fiorina Mastroianni told SBS News.
“We need to get better at communicating or making sure that our patients and their families and their carers understand the information that we provide.”
Forgetful patients
Ms Mastrionni said patients forget between 40 and 80 per cent of information provided by medical professionals.
“We need to make sure that when we do give the information out the people do understand what we’ve said.”
The figures have prompted the focus for this year’s (3 – 9 September) to be on clearer communication, with the tagline ‘Talk, Listen, Ask”.
“Communication is the point at which a health encounter will succeed or it will fail,” said Leissa Pitts, Multicultural Health Service Manager in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District.
“It is upon the clinician to check that the client understands the information and that they are leaving the hospital or the healthcare environment knowing that they can actually go back home and use that information well.”
Talk, Listen, Ask
As part of Multicultural Health Week, an adult English class of migrants and new arrivals were taken on a tour of the Shoalhaven Memorial Hospital in Nowra on the state’s south coast.
The group of 16, from origins including Tibet and Taiwan, were taken ward to ward to familiarise themselves with the facilities - and to learn what to do when a medical emergency arises.
A class are taken on a tour of a hospital on the NSW south coast. Source: SBS News/Omar Dabbagh
“This tour is very helpful for me,” said Yi Ping McCarthy. She is new to the south coast and travelled with her husband and two-year-old daughter Delaney.
“I know where, if my daughter is sick, where I can go, and if I go to this hospital who I can speak to first, so it’s really good for me.”
Ms McCarthy initially moved to Darwin from Taiwan nearly a decade ago, and said she still encounters language barriers at the GP.
“It is hard to understand, and the language is totally different,” she said.
“Some professionals I can’t understand. Even now sometimes I go to see the GP and he’s just ‘blah blah blah’ and I’m like ‘what?’”
That confusion can cause anxiety for those preparing to use the hospital more frequently, like expecting mother Mai Ngo, who is due to give birth just before Christmas.
“It is a little bit [stressful], but I try to relax so it’s good for my baby,” Ms Ngo said.
“I believe and I trust the doctor and the nurses.”
