COVID-19 resources
Facilitating Healthcare Access
About the Irish Health System: A guide for refugees and other migrants
The guide is in three parts.
- Part 1 gives information on how to access different types of health care, the services that are free and how the GP, Pharmacy and hospital systems work.
- Part 2 gives information about specialist services (dental treatments, eye tests, hearing aids, vaccinations) and some of the staff you may meet in the health system.
- Part 3 advises what to do in an emergency.
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Irish)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Albanian)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Arabic)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Bulgarian)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Chinese)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Czech)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Farsi)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/French)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Georgian
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Kurdish)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Lithuanian)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Pashto)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Polish)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Portuguese)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Romanian)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Russian)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Slovak)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Somali)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Spanish)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Ukrainian)
- About the Irish Health System (PDF, English/Urdu)
About the Irish Health Service PRINT poster with QR codes in 21 languages
About the Irish Health Service WEB poster with QR codes in 21 languages
HSE My Health, My Language
HSE National Social Inclusion Office and Translate Ireland have developed a series of videos entitled “My health, my language” for migrants and international protection applicants to give them information on healthcare in Ireland.
The videos on 11 health topics are translated into 17 languages; English, Irish, Arabic, Czech, French, Georgian, Mandarin Chinese (simplified), Romanian, Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish, Somali, Ukrainian and Urdu.
HSE GP visit card
Posters with information on the GP visit card, available in English, Irish, Polish, Romanian, Portuguese,Lithuanian, Chinese, Latvian, Ukrainian, Arabic.
Cairde healthconnect.ie
A multilingual website which provides information on health services in Ireland including GP Practices, hospitals, maternity and women's health and mental health. Available in English, Arabic, Chinese, Ukrainian, Russian and Polish. Also available is information on Diabetes including Your Guide to Living with Type 2 Diabetes available in Ukrainian, Somalian, Russian, Romanian, Portuguese, Polish, Lithuanian, French, English, Chinese, Arabic.
Visit healthconnect.ie.
HSE unplanned pregnancy support services
Interpreters can be provided in 240 languages. This service is free and confidential. Freephone 1800 828 010. You or someone on your behalf will need to tell us what language you speak and give us a phone number. An interpreter will then phone you back for a 3-way call between you, a MyOptions counsellor and the interpreter.
My options freephone line
HSE Multilingual Aid
This aid helps health staff to communicate more effectively with patients. It is intended for use prior to asking for the services of an interpreter or while waiting for the interpreter to arrive. This is available in:
Arabic, Bosnian, Chinese, Czech, French, German,Hungarian, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Pashtu, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Somali, Ukrainian and Urdu.
Language identification card (PDF)
HSE 'I need to see the Pharmacist' translation aid
Download the translation aid to assist in visiting the pharmacist in English/Arabic (docx)
HSE Aids to translating foreign immunisation records
Aids to translating foreign immunisation records
HSE Quick chart of vaccine-preventable disease terms in multiple languages
Quick chart of vaccine preventable disease terms in multiple languages
Cairde Pathways To Being Well
Cairde develops culturally appropriate information materials about health and health services in Ireland. Some are available in various languages. To access these resources, you can visit the Cairde website.
Health Services Intercultural Guide
Health Services Intercultural Guide: Responding to the needs of diverse religious communities and cultures in healthcare settings.
This is a resource to help health-care professionals to care for patients from diverse ethnic, religious and cultural groups. It is also available as an app - Understand me - free of charge from Google Play.
Lost in Translation? A guide for HSE staff
Lost in Translation? Good Practice Guidelines for HSE Staff in Planning, Managing and Assuring Quality Translations of Health Related Material and Other Languages.
HSE Information for Roma Communities
Health information available in English, Romanian, Czech and Slovak
Local support information for Roma in Cork and Kerry is collated in the following leaflets
English, Romanian, Czech and Ukrainian
Child Health
HSE Mychild.ie books 0-2 years and 2-5 years
mychild.ie book for 0-2 year olds - English/Arabic (PDF)
mychild.ie book for 2-5 year olds - English/Arabic (PDF)
HSE Mychild.ie pregnancy and postpartum booklets
My Pregnancy book - English/Arabic (PDF)
HSE Postpartum (after giving birth) booklet - English (PDF)
HSE Postpartum (after giving birth) booklet - Romanian (PDF)
Immunisation and Infectious Diseases
HSE Childhood Immunisation Calendar
The Immunisation Calendar was designed to accompany HSE information on vaccinations.
FDYS Childhood Diseases
Leaflets developed by the Waterford and Wexford Roma Health Projects managed by the Integration and Support Unit and the Ferns Diocesan Youth Service; supported by HSE Social Inclusion and the Department of Public Health, Community Healthcare Organisation Area 5. The leaflet is available in English and Romanian.
The Childhood Diseases leaflet was designed to accompany HSE information on vaccinations.
HSE vaccination information (childhood, school and adult)
Information relating to childhood, school and adult vaccinations can be downloaded here in the following languages English, Irish, French, German, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian and Slovak.
HSE Measles and MMR collated vaccine resources
Link to word document with collated resources here
HSE Measles information video and poster with QR codes
The bi-lingual videos below in Romanian and English are available as a QR code poster here
HSE Flu vaccine information
The HSE has launched a flu vaccine campaign and produced leaflets for 1) at risk groups 2) healthcare workers 3) pregnant women 4) children and young people
Translations are available in 9 languages: English, Irish, Arabic, Czech, French, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian.
HPSC Hepatitis B factsheets and leaflets
Hepatitis B information leaflets are available from the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Romanian and Russian. Hepatitis B leaflets.
HIV Treatment leaflets
The HSE's Sexual Health and Wellbeing programme have treatment leaflets in French, Spanish and Portuguese. Their Prep information leaflet is also available in Portuguese.
HSE Tuberculosis (TB) leaflets
HSE patient information leaflets on TB are available in 14 languages – English, Irish, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian and Spanish.
Download the tuberculosis leaflets
Sexual health
HSE Your Guide to Sexually Transmitted Infections (sexualwellbeing.ie) available in French, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Ukrainian
Contraception (sexualwellbeing.ie) currently available in 10 languages.
Keeping Well
Asthma Society of Ireland Education Resources for Minority Groups
The Asthma Education Inclusion Project consists of culturally appropriate, literacy-friendly asthma resources and materials for the Roma, Refugees, People Seeking International Protection and the Traveller community.
Visit the Asthma Society of Ireland website for resources
Diet planning for coeliacs
This resource is available to registered Dietitians in English and Romanian by contacting the Gastroenterology Interest Group of the INDI via info@indi.ie.
HSE keeping well in winter
- Keeping well in winter: Roma communities (PDF, English)
- Keeping well in winter: Roma communities (PDF, Romanian)
- Keeping well in winter: Roma communities (PDF, Czech)
- Keeping well in winter: Roma communities (PDF, Slovak)
- Keeping well in winter poster (PDF, English)
- Keeping well in winter poster (PDF, Albanian)
- Keeping well in winter poster (PDF, Arabic)
- Keeping well in winter poster (PDF, Dari)
- Keeping well in winter poster (PDF, French)
- Keeping well in winter poster (PDF, Georgian)
- Keeping well in winter poster (PDF, Russian)
- Keeping well in winter poster (PDF, Somali)
- Keeping well in winter poster (PDF, Ukrainian)
- Keeping well in winter poster (PDF, Urdu)
My Medicines Lists and the 'Know, Check, Ask' campaign - Medication Safety Programme
The National Medication Safety Programme have produced a leaflet encouraging patients to ‘Know, Check, Ask’ in relation to their medicines.
The Know Check Ask campaign has been designed to help you KNOW your medicines and keep a list, CHECK that you are using the right medicine the right way, and ASK your healthcare professional if you’re unsure. One of the key resources from the Know, Check, Ask campaign is the ‘My Medicines List’; a list of all the medicines and supplements a person takes. The medicines list is available in 52 languages under 'resources' here
HSE National Cervical Screening Programme
CervicalCheck website has a sample CervicalCheck information sheet and Cervical Screening form in several languages. These documents are to aid HSE staff in explaining what cervical screening is to participants where English is not their first language. However, it is important that you use the English screening form when you are submitting the screening sample:
English, Chinese, French, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Urdu, German, Hindi, Filipino, Arabic, Bengali, Croatian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
HSE National Screening Service
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Cork Kerry Community Healthcare migrant health
Visit the Cork Kerry Community Healthcare migrant health website
Information includes:
- Trauma and PTSD- what it is and what it feels like -Videos available in English, Arabic and Farsi
- How to manage sleeping and anxiety and other issues - Leaflets available in English, Arabic
- Meditations - available in Arabic and English
Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence (DSGBV)
Domestic violence
HSE Cork/Kerry Animation on domestic violence - English (Youtube)
HSE Cork/Kerry Animation on domestic violence - Arabic (Youtube)
AkiDwA Women Support Services leaflet and poster for Domestic Violence
Available in English leaflet, Arabic poster, Arabic leaflet, French poster, French leaflet, Swahili poster, Swahili leaflet
Hill Street Family Resource Centre Domestic Violence poster
A poster developed by Hill Street Family Resource Centre (Dublin) is available in:
English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Hindi, Polish, Romanian, Russian.
Rape Crisis Network of Ireland help
rapecrisishelp.ie is available in Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian. Just visit the site and choose your preferred language from the drop-down menu.
Women’s Aid Domestic Violence Videos
Women's Aid have developed videos to share the signs of domestic violence and how and where to access safe, supportive help in many languages.
Visit the Women's Aid website