For the 20% of Québec's population whose mother tongue is not French, communication in this language can create difficulties when dealing with the health and social services system. The presence of linguistic barriers in available services can have major negative repercussions on the health of patients. To ensure that anglophones and other linguistic minorities have access to services in their mother tongue, Québec health care facilities may use bilingual or translated documents, hire bilingual employees, offer second language courses to health professionals, or use interpretation services.
While bilingual or translated documents can make it easier to ask questions in another language, they do not ensure that the answers will necessarily be understood. Moreover, in Québec, documents translated into English may not be relevant in communications with allophone or aboriginal clienteles.
The use of bilingual employees has many benefits in terms of communication quality.…