Language Services Innovation Grants Program – Community of Practice
In June 2017 the Department of Health and Human Services established a new Language Services Innovation Grant program to improve the capacity of public hospitals to provide language services in acute settings in Victoria. The aim of this program is to increase uptake of interpreters in hospitals, with a particular focus on the needs of people from refugee backgrounds including people seeking asylum. This grants program aims to promote the development of innovative projects rather than simply increasing already existing language services.
The Language Services and Innovation Grant program is funded from 2017-2021, with two separate funding cycles. The first grant round funded four projects from 2017-2019.
The initial four programs were:
- Goulburn Valley Health – It’s an emergency! Language Service Provision in the ED.
- Melbourne Health – Improving access to professional interpreters using videoconferencing.
- Monash Health – Measuring what matters; data systems to optimise outcomes for women who require an interpreter in maternity care
- Western Health – Improving access and equity in the West: language services
Four new projects were funded for the second and final round from 2019-2021. The projects are as follows:
- Monash Health – Increasing understanding and health literacy for Dari and Arabic speaking families accessing maternal and child health services.
- Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Implementing the use of a real-time translation device, ‘Travis the Translator’, across the Victorian public radiotherapy network.
- Melbourne Health – Video-interpreting for home-based patient care
- Alfred Health. – Introducing video interpreting technology in Emergency, Inpatient and Outpatient clinical settings.
Community of Practice
The Network’s role has been to establish, facilitate and provide secretariat support for the Language Services Innovation Grants Community of Practice (CoP). The CoP is a forum where the project staff and other relevant stakeholders collaborate to support the development and implementation of the respective Language Service Innovation Grant projects. The Community Practice is also a vehicle to ensure learnings from the projects are disseminated beyond the participating health services and teams.
Language Service Innovations Forum – June 2021
The Victorian Refugee Health Network will host a forum at the end of the 2021 grant round funding period to share project learnings with a broader audience. For more information, contact
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- Information about Video Remote Interpreting (VRI)
- Making the case for quality language services (Professionals Australia, 2016)
- Media release: More Translating Services For Culturally Diverse Patients (Minister for Health, 2017)
- Media release: Boosting language services for all Victorians (Minister for Multicultural Affairs, 2016)
- Promoting the engagement of interpreters in Victorian health services
- Information about Video Remote Interpreting (VRI)
- Promoting the engagement of interpreters in Victorian health services
