In a staff meeting the other day, the social worker mentioned her new resident was having difficulty because he didn’t speak any English. It was arranged that the director of the Dietary Department would go up to act as translator.
“I know a website where you can get language cue cards with health-related words on them,” I told the team.
Following the meeting, the social worker and I went to the computer and pulled up the link from the “Products of Note” section of the sidebar in my blog: Eastern Health: Health-Related Language Cue Cards
“What language do you need?” I asked her, looking at a list of over 60 languages ranging from Italian, Spanish, and German to Ukranian, Farsi, Swahili, and Japanese.
“Punjabi.”
A few seconds later the pages printed out, and were at the 4th floor nursing station within the hour.
Each sheet contained pictures of important social and medical issues, with the English and Punjabi words for them below. The selection included “husband,” “wife,” “sit down,” “shower chair,” “diabetes,” “pain,” and “hospital.” Nestled between “audiologist” and “psychiatrist” was the Punjabi word for “psychologist.”
Dr. El,
Isn't technology amazing?! I'm checking it out for the fun of it and future reference. Thank you for sharing this site.
and the word for "social worker" in Punjabi is……:-)
Sue, I know you're doing great things with technology in the nursing home, including your Wii bowling program you've mentioned on the blog. Even low tech can make a huge difference. I remember once when a nursing home switched from hand-cranking adjustable beds the staff had to lean over to use, to remote controlled beds the residents could adjust on their own. What a transformation for everybody!
The Punjabi word for social worker is definitely there, Jill. I can't read it, though, because it's all Greek to me. 🙂
Eastern Health recently made up-dates on their website and they have not worked out all the glitches yet. However, Cue Cards will still be available, but a little harder to find, as they are not listed on the home page as was previously the case.
The direct link for the next couple of months will be :
http://www2.easternhealth.org.au/language/cueCards/index.asp
After that, the easiest way to locate them will be to either click on the 'Interpreter' information, at the bottom of each webpage, which will take you directly to the Transcultural Services webpage:
http://www.easternhealth.org.au/Services/interpreting.aspx
where direct links will be provided to Cue Cards and other resources we will have available.
Thanks, Karyn, I just updated my links.