NEWS/BLOG
Can your dentist practice communicate with all your clients?
Language barriers can make accessing care difficult for some people. Our helpful tips will help you communicate effectively with clients of all languages.
Can you confidently communicate in hundreds of different lanaguages?
Unless you are some kind of super hero, we are guessing not! However, with around 9.5 million migrants in the UK today, there is a growing need to be able to communicate in multiple languages in order to support clients.
Some of these migrants are vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees. As a social enterprise set up to support displaced people, it’s very important to us that we help ensure that the care they need is accessible to them, and language is a big barrier in this.
Being ready to support all these people is a mammoth task, but we thought we might be able to get you started by providing some translations (written and phonetic) in key languages. You can print these off and stick them somewhere visible to staff so that, if they read or hear theses phrases, they will understand that the client is asking for support.
‘I have tooth ache’
Arabic: عندی آلم فی السنان (Eindi Alamu fi al’ asnann).
Urdu: مجھے دانت میں درد ہے(Mujhey Dant ka Dard he).
Chinese Mandarin: 我的牙疼 (wo de ya teng)
Farsi: دندانم درد می کند (Dendanam dard mi kanad).
Vietnamese: Tôi bị đau răng (toy be dough rang)
We hope that this will help you to start identifying people who are asking for help.
But, unfortunately, this is very much the beginning of the story… Say you identify that someone is telling you they have a toothache in Urdu – what then? It’s a great first step, but how do you then book the appointment or give any instructions?
Clear Voice can help with this. You don’t need to muddle through, you can have an interpreter ‘in your pocket’, as we like to say! Our on-demand telephone interpreting is available 24/7/365 in over languages. When you need some help communicating, you simply call the number, select the language you need and you will have an interpreter on the line within seconds (35 seconds, to be precise!).
We are a thoroughly ethical business – all our profits go to charity and our business is set up with clients at the very centre. There is no cost to sign up or minimum spend nonsense; you simply pay for what you use once you have used it, whether that’s a few minutes every month or several hours every day.
We also have face-to-face interpreters and written translations available to meet the needs of your practice and your clients.
If you would like to know more about improving your practice’s communication with clients, please contact Rachael Tew, our Sales and Partnership Manager:
01304 806790 / 07845319304
rachael.tew@clearvoice.org.uk