Description:
Global migration continues to increase, and with it comes increasing linguistic diversity. This presents obvious challenges for both healthcare provider and patient, and the chapters in this volume represent a range of international perspectives on language barriers in health care. A variety of factors influence the best ways of approaching and overcoming these language barriers, including cultural, geographical, political and practical considerations, and as a result a range of approaches and solutions are suggested and discussed. The authors in this volume discuss a wide range of countries and languages, and cover issues that will be familiar to all healthcare practitioners, including the role of informal interpreters, interpreting in a clinical setting, bilingual healthcare practitioners and working with languages with comparatively small numbers of speakers.
Brief description:
Elizabeth A. Jacobs is Professor of Medicine and Population Health Sciences and Associate Vice Chair for Health Services Research at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, USA.
Review Quotes:
Finally - all the best advice on effective communication in the context of language barriers, all in one place! Health professionals and policymakers alike will find this a useful resource for providing high quality care to diverse populations. Each chapter, authored by leading experts, offers practical guidance for doing just that.