Linguistic resources and strategies used in multilingual communication in HIV/AIDS care centres in Lesotho

Abstract

This paper gives a description of multilingual practices in two HIV-care centres in Lesotho on the basis of interviews with both health care providers and some patients who make use of the services of these centres. It considers the importance of effective linguistic communication in HIV-care and the hazards posed to such communication when physicians do not share the first language of the patients and of others working in these health care facilities. It gives the insights gained in a recent study on the kinds of interventions developed to facilitate communication in such multilingual institutional settings. In one of the centres informal interpreters are appointed to assist in transfer of information during consultations; in the second centre interpreting is only casually available from bilingual staff members. Besides interpreting, participants reported engaging in a number of other mediating practices. Evidence gained from informal interpreting studies elsewhere suggests that more than literal translation is required to achieve the kind of communicative success that will ensure quality in the health care provided to a vulnerable community. This study agrees with such findings and has generated a number of suggestions for improving the management of the linguistic diversity in communication within such clinics. The paper focuses on the specific resources provided in the healthcare centres and on the strategies participants use to enhance medical communication.

Experiences of language barriers by homoeopathy student interns providing health services at the University of Johannesburg

“…There are studies that show these various strategies: checking in, code-switching, visual aids, gestures – being employed by HCPs in order to mitigate the language barriers they encounter with their patients to varying levels of success (Benjamin et al 2016 ; Lukoschek et al 2003 ; Sobane & Anthonissen 2013 ).…”