NPLD-Coppieters Campus 2023 Report “Managing languages in the field of health & social care in multilingual communities”

by Dr. Sandrina Antunes

Papers / 29.4.24
NPLD-Coppieters Campus 2023 Report “Managing languages in the field of health & social care in multilingual communities”

“Effective communication is the foundation of successful healthcare delivery”

Language choice is not only a crucial element of personal identity but also essential for communicating feelings and ideas. However, in some bilingual or multilingual societies where one language is minoritized in favor of the predominant one, patients may be denied the opportunity to communicate in their preferred language. This can compromise their health outcomes.

The experience of minority-language speakers in healthcare suggests that many patients encounter language barriers and communication difficulties that hinder the development of therapeutic relationships and individualized care. Therefore, healthcare practitioners must adopt a multidimensional view of language: An appreciation of the power and influence of language can lead to enhanced language awareness and increased sensitivity in practice, particularly in bilingual settings.

In this report, Dr. Sandrina Antunes summarizes the content of various conversations held during the fourth edition of the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD) – Coppieters Campus in Helsinki on September 28-29, 2023. The event focused on linguistic barriers in health and social services available to multilingual communities and the negative repercussions these barriers can have on patients’ health.

The report includes key ideas from the keynote speech by Dr. Awen Iorwerth, Orthopaedic Consultant at CTMUHB and Clinical Lecturer at Cardiff University for Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol (Wales). Dr. Iorwerth emphasized the benefits of studying medicine through minority languages. Experts and practitioners presented three case studies to share experiences and raise public awareness about the Swedish language community in Finland, New Brunswick in Canada, and the Basque Country in Spain. The paper concludes with the opportunities and challenges for each case study.

This paper is a joint initiative of  NPLD, Folktinget & Coppieters Foundation.

Background photo by Joshua Chehov.

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This paper is financially supported by the European Parliament. The European Parliament is not liable for its content or the opinions of the authors.

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