The comments people made about this story are appalling. Sometimes grandparents move to Canada with their grown children and they're unable to learn the new language. I agree that if you are moving to Canada, you should have functional English skills, which do not often include medicalese. What if you've just moved to Canada? What if in your culture, it's impolite to ask too many questions? What if you're not educated enough to know to ask these questions? Quite often, even if you speak English fluently, in times of emergency you get flustered and confused, and may have trouble understanding basic ideas.

There should be some sort of solution to this, a phone-in interpreting service. Perhaps even a database of commonly used expressions translated to various languages just to help out with things. Doctors with multiple languages is not the solution.

 

From: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/12/24/health-language.html#socialcomments

 

Language barriers lead to health barriers: study

Last Updated: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 | 9:30 AM ET Comments13Recommend4

CBC News

A new study on health care and language indicates that immigrants in Canada's largest city may not be getting the care they need.

According to the study, published in the current issue of the Canadian Journal of Public Health, language is an enormous barrier for many newcomers, especially when it comes to communication between health-care providers and patients.

The report says that in some instances, the language barrier is preventing patients from understanding their treatment options.

At the Immigrant Women's Health Centre on College Street in downtown Toronto, Karen Chow checks on her client. Chow is able to talk to the patient in Cantonese, a service that is unavailable in most clinics in the city.

Chow said that at other clinics and at hospitals, this Cantonese woman is mostly oblivious to what is going on around her. The problem, said Chow, is language.

"She may have a problem so she may need to bring somebody to interpret [at a clinic or hospital]. Here she doesn't need to bring anybody."

The study says language is not just a barrier to communication and understanding. It may also prevent many immigrants from seeking the health care they need.

Kevin Pottie, the study's lead researcher, says his team looked at data collected from a Statistics Canada questionnaire.

He said the study shows many immigrants don't have health literacy. In most cases, they can't navigate the health-care system, understand health information or apply that information to their lives.

"We're concerned this could have implications on the access to health care or maybe directly on their health," he said.

Pottie is hopeful the study will lead to the implementation of translation programs to help newcomers.