Health, Newcomers and Language Barriers (II)

Sid Ahmed Baba El Hebli, Intercultural mediator and coordinator of the project « Intercultural Mediators »in the health centres of the region of Lleida, Health and Family Association, Barcelona

«”Where there is a tongue there is no fight”, popular African saying»

Lately, the arrival of important groups of immigrants are contributing to relatively transform the cultural characteristics of Catalonia. This new multicultural and linguistic diversity situation sets up new challenges to the Catalan Administration and their public services in general but more particularly in the health sector. A premise in this context would be the search and/or the creation of necessary tools to guarantee a worthy an adequate health care assistance in equal conditions for all these groups, taking into account their idiosyncrasies and cultural differences.

In every demand, objective or need from immigrant groups there is a common link: the linguistic barrier or language dilemma. From there stems the need to create a communication bridge between them and the different health professionals, to mainly guarantee the following:

• That the immigrant is not deprived from the symbolic interaction with others.
• That suitable access to different public services is made easy to guarantee an optimal inclusion-integration to the society of reception.
• That the immigrant is allowed to express his or her doubts, sorrows, beliefs, traditions, habits and cultural values.
• That he or she is assisted in understanding and make him or herself understood facilitating a mutual approach between him or her and the health professionals in order to ensure a suitable care without misunderstandings and/or cultural transgressions.
• That necessary information/training is given to foster personal autonomy.