Ilona Lee
The NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service has now operated a multilingual health information website for three years. It contains nearly 400 pieces of information in up to 30 languages.
It was our dream to have all multilingual health information available on one site. Little did we know the problems that we would encounter.
The presentation will focus briefly on the current site, how it was developed and how it can be used before moving on to the issues that we are now facing. Checking, updating, correcting - not once but multiple times - when word processing is not an option, and the general oversight of information when you can't read the language, provide ongoing challenges. In addition, the responsibility of a government service for accuracy, the need for co-operation amongst health service providers and the search for the definitive piece of information on any one health topic can turn the dream into a nightmare.
Whilst there is no doubt that this is an environmentally better solution, we have still to determine whether there are actual cost savings when staff time and technology are taken into account.
Having said that, our experience should be of great interest to any agency thinking of developing a website with multilingual content.
Ilona Lee is the Manager of the NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service, http://mhcs.health.nsw.gov.au/