Language Services: Good Practice in the Victorian Health and Community Sector

Victoria is Australia’s most culturally diverse state. Over 23% of Victorians were born overseas and come from over 200 different countries. Of those born overseas, 72% were born in non-English speaking countries. This impacts on the English language profi ciency of many Victorians. The quality of language services provision is a significant determinant of the accessibility and effectiveness of health and community services for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Victoria.

There are compelling reasons for effective language services delivery in the health and community sector.

Studies conducted locally, nationally and internationally demonstrate that the provision of high quality language services results in a range of benefits for both clients and practitioners.

These benefits include:

• Improved quality of care
• Better health outcomes
• Increased access to health services
• Greater client and practitioner satisfaction

Effective implementation of language services benefits organisations by reducing costs, ensuring compliance with legislative requirements and improving risk management.

The purpose of this report is to support service providers to reflect on their own delivery of language services and to consider ways in which to improve their approach to language services provision.
This report highlights a model for good practice and showcases snapshots of good practice in language services delivery that reflect the current challenges and opportunities in health and community services today.

The report also includes six resources that were developed by CEH in consultation with service providers from a range of health and community organisations.

These resources provide ‘how to’ guidelines for the improvement of various components of language services and can also be downloaded from CEH’s website.