The Silence of South African Health Policies on the Language Barrier Between Healthcare Providers and Patients

IF 0.5 3区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Language Matters Pub Date : 2020-09-01 DOI:10.1080/10228195.2020.1794017

K. Sobane, C. van der Merwe, B. Shandu

引用次数: 1

Abstract

Abstract The language barrier continues to compromise adequate healthcare delivery in multilingual healthcare systems. This makes language an important issue for the policy agenda in such systems. This article highlights the silence of selected South African health policies on managing the language barrier in healthcare. The analysis establishes that the selected policies make limited provisions, if any, on the language barrier and fail to account for how the language barrier should be addressed in the provision of care. This silence derives from the level of attention that the subject receives in public discourses and national policies. It is therefore recommended that policies become explicit on how the language barrier in healthcare delivery should be addressed, and that effective implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation mechanisms be put in place to facilitate equitable access to healthcare services for all.

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南非卫生政策对医疗服务提供者和患者之间语言障碍的沉默

在多语言医疗保健系统中，语言障碍继续损害适当的医疗保健服务。这使得语言成为此类系统中政策议程的一个重要问题。这篇文章强调了南非选定的卫生政策在管理卫生保健中的语言障碍方面的沉默。分析表明，选定的政策对语言障碍的规定有限，如果有的话，也没有说明在提供护理时应如何解决语言障碍。这种沉默源于该主题在公共话语和国家政策中受到的关注程度。因此，建议就如何解决保健服务中的语言障碍制定明确的政策，并建立有效的执行以及监测和评估机制，以促进所有人公平获得保健服务。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Language Matters Multiple-

CiteScore

1.20

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The purpose of Language Matters is to provide a journal of international standing with a unique African flavour focusing on multilingualism in Africa. Although the journal contributes to the language debate on all African languages, sub-Saharan Africa and issues related to multilingualism in the southern African context are the journal’s specific domains. The journal seeks to promote the dissemination of ideas, points of view, teaching strategies and research on different aspects of African languages, providing a forum for discussion on the whole spectrum of language usage and debate in Africa. The journal endorses a multidisciplinary approach to the study of language and welcomes contributions not only from sociolinguists, psycholinguists and the like, but also from educationalists, language practitioners, computer analysts, engineers or scholars with a genuine interest in and contribution to the study of language. All contributions are critically reviewed by at least two referees. Although the general focus remains on multilingualism and related issues, one of the three issues of Language Matters published each year is a special thematic edition on Language Politics in Africa. These special issues embrace a wide spectrum of language matters of current relevance in Southern Africa.