My Health, My Language wins Equality Initiative of the Year

The National Social Inclusion Office (NSIO) was delighted to win the Equality Initiative of the Year at the Irish Healthcare Awards for My Health, My Language, multi lingual videos.

We would like to thank the Irish Healthcare Awards, the judging panel, sponsors and all who made the awards possible.

The NSIO would also like to thank Translate Ireland who we worked with in the development of this comprehensive series of multi-lingual videos.  The videos, which have been produced in 17 different languages, offer clear information on important health information such as how the Irish health system works, accessing different types of health care, services that are free and information on pregnancy and new-born and maternal health.

Many people come from countries with very different healthcare systems to Ireland, and navigating an unfamiliar health service on arrival in a new country has been shown to be stressful experience and can result in a lack of access to essential services.

The videos are presented by doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, who live and work in Ireland but moved here from abroad, speaking in languages such as Arabic, French, Ukrainian, Polish, Slovak and Mandarin Chinese (Simplified). People are often assured when they see a member of their own community delivering factual, trustworthy health information in the videos.

This initiative would not have been possible without the healthcare staff who took time out of their busy schedules during the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Ukrainian crisis to participate in the videos. A special thanks to all who took part.

• Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) and HSE Strategy and Research
• HSE Digital, Communications, National Immunisation office, Sexual health and crisis pregnancy programme, Nurture programme and Irish language officers.
• Steering Group members: Dr Margaret Fitzgerald, Graham Clifford, Dr. Catherine Clifford, Ruth Armstrong, Oonagh Hogan, Sandra Hogan, Michelle Hayes, Jane-Ann McKenna, Dr Gabriel Fitzpatrick, Grainne Begley.

Funding acknowledged from the Irish Refugee Protection Programme