Video interpreting receives innovation funding
Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District is a community healthcare provider and a key partner committed to reducing our environmental footprint and building sustainable healthcare systems.
We are actively working to strategically address tomorrow’s challenges and the impact of local climate change on our ability to deliver high-quality health services into the future.
These efforts were boosted by the news that an innovative sustainability project from the district received funding from the NSW Health Sustainable Futures Innovation Fund.
One of 17 projects selected to receive funding, the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District’s Virtual Interpretation Service is designed to help patients, families, caregivers, and people of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Improve access to health care for the deaf community while reducing emissions from travel.
Luke O’Connell, senior multicultural project officer for the district’s multicultural health service, said the funding will help expand the use of virtual health interpreters.
“About 22% of the district’s population was born abroad, speaks 135 languages, and has a large population of refugees and asylum seekers with complex health, social and medical needs,” says Luke. .
“This funding will allow us to reduce interpreter travel, which will have an impact on reducing our annual carbon footprint, saving the district significant travel costs.”
Work has begun at the project site, the Women’s and Children’s Outpatient Department at Nepean Hospital. The service is expected to benefit from increased availability and accessibility of video interpreters. This project is a joint initiative with Multicultural Health, the Virtual Care team and the Visual Telehealth Lab at the University of Sydney.
This funding will be used to purchase new equipment, assign a dedicated virtual care staff member to support the installation and adoption of video interpreting, and research opportunities to help better understand significant carbon footprint reductions over the life of the project. helps identify the
https://www.nsw.gov.au/health/nbmlhd/news/stories/video-interpreting-receives-innovation-funding Video interpreting receives innovation funding