Cultural Competence | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

HoliGame – Learning about Workforce Diversity through Play

Deep into the winter months, as the seasonal rains seem to never stop, it’s easy to forget that there are holidays just around the corner. How many holidays? About 20, many of which are concentrated in April-May, and which are celebrated and commemorated by most of the religions and communities living in Israel.

As a manager or employer, how do you prepare for the holidays? What should be taken into account when preparing for the holiday? How should it be marked? What happens when holidays from different religions fall on the same day? How do you make everyone feel like they belong, even when the holiday being celebrated is not theirs?

To learn about the ways to deal with all these complex issues, our Orna Shani Golan, Director of the Cultural Competency Desk, teamed up with Noa Tron, Director of the Israeli Forum for Employment Diveristy, and together they created HoliGame – a tool about how to prepare managers, employers and other staff to speak about the different holidays during April and May, as they prepare to mark the different holidays in their organizations and companies.

Orna and Noa while the other playin the "MIshag"

Orna and Noa while the other playing HoliGame

On 18.2, we were hosted by Intel’s Petach Tikva campus. A group of 25 women from different organizations came to play HoliGame for the first time: Getting to know the holidays, dealing with different dilemmas, challenges and opportunities that arise around the holidays, as well as issues, both regarding values and organizational logistics, that arise in when different holidays fall on the same day, the different ways workers react to each other, and more.

The HoliGame board

This is how the game works. In order for participants to advance on the game board, they had to deal with dilemmas such as:

How to mark the Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers without adding to existing tensions?
How do you decide which holidays the organization celebrates, and which they don’t?
What to do with a worker who actively works to sabotage an organization’s holiday commemoration?
What to do when employees complain that they must give up their traditions in the name of inclusion and cultural sensitivity?

Playing in action

They also advanced if they picked a card that advances cultural competence, such as:

As part of the preparation for the holiday period, you checked in advance who of the employees would like vacation and when.
As a result of being prepared and organized early, both the needs of the staff and the needs of the system were taken care of.
At a management meeting, it was decided that during Ramadan, all staff meetings at the company would end no later than 2pm so that the those who fast could have time to get home to the special meal that breaks their fast in the evening.

The participants were held up or had to ‘pay’ fines if they picked a card with an activity that is not culturally competent. For example:

The foreman scheduled employees for shifts without taking into account that Easter and Passover fall at the same time, and as a result, you receive complaints about being inconsiderate about employees’ needs, and employees are unwilling to work during the holiday.
Every May, a ceremony for the company’s Workers of the Year is held, with a rich array of refreshments. This year, Ramadan comes in May, so Muslim workers will not be able to take part in the ceremony.
During the interim days of Passover week, a worker who does not keep Kosher dietary laws brought a pita into the common kitchenette, which led to an incident between him and those who do keep Kosher. Workers came to you to handle the issue, and it turned out that there were no previous instructions on what to do regarding food in the company during Passover.

Participants noted that they learned a great deal about both the holidays themselves and about tools to work out issues dealing with them in order to not create new tensions in the organization, and how to prepare ahead of time for the upcoming April and May holidays in particular and holidays in the organization in general.

Concluding the game

Orna posted the following on Facebook:

Remember what it’s like when you had that dream? When you have some vague notion of what you want something to be, but the idea still doesn’t have a clear framework, a precise image in your mind, or even a name. Just a feeling. That’s the way it was with the HoliGame. A game that helps people become acquainted with the different holidays and commemorations in Israel, for those managing diverse teams. For the past several months, Noa Tron, Director of the Israeli Forum for Employment Diversity and I (from the Jerusalem Intercultural Center) have been passing ideas back and forth about how to make all the diverse holidays and commemorations in Israel accessible to everyone? What is the potential to create an inclusive environment with the right approach? And how many issues can be missed along the way? And not to mention the dilemmas that arise from just preparing for and commemorating the different holidays themselves. And finally, today, 25 women (where are you men?) had the opportunity to play this game, the HoliGame. A chance to get to know the holidays (Pentecost anyone?), deal situations, some more familiar, some less, and about think what each person can do to change things in each of the companies she came from.
So one small dream was fulfilled. (And thank you to amazing designer Sagi Ashin for understanding exactly what we dreamt about.) Thank goodness that there’s more where that came from. And if you want to hear more about HoliGame or want me to come to your company, speak with me (or Noa).

Here’s the original post:

The Israeli Forum for Employment Diversity also posted the following on Facebook:

It was a festive and interesting morning at Intel’s Petach Tikva campus. Months of developing and planning about how to prepare for the April-May holidays led us to the HoliGame. Becoming familiar with the holidays, dealing with dilemmas, challenges and opportunities that arise around the holidays, as well as issues regarding values and organizational logistics that arise when holidays fall on the same days, employee reactions, and more. Twenty-five women from different companies were able to deal with these questions in an experiential and unique way.
Some of our recommendations on how to make the corporate environment more culturally competent:
* Get to know the different holiday calendars and prepare for them ahead of time.
* Learn from mistakes and successes – create an organizational memory
* Adjust the company’s readiness to the needs of current employees
* Decide what to celebrate and commemorate – along with employees
* Holiday policies – take into account: food, ceremony, work scheduling (shifts, vacations, working hours), terminology, translation, appropriate gifts
* Creating an organizational ‘toolbox’ for responding to organizational tensions
* Using effective dialogue tools for dealing with employee resistance
* Holidays are not just welfare – they affect workers’ well-being on various levels.
Want to know more? Did you want to play and were not able to come? We also come to the companies themselves. Many thanks to the Jerusalem Intercultural Center and especially to Orna Shani on the wonderful partnership. A special thanks to Sagi Ashin for the stunning design. To the Be-Atzmi organization for the comments, and to Racheli Livni-Mordechai and to Hadar Tal Falik for their wonderful hospitality and the inspiration you gave us in telling Intel’s story.

And here’s the original post:

orna2020-03-07T09:00:50+00:00February 25th, 2020|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in the Workplace|

Cultural Competency with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority seeks to protect Israel’s treasures of nature, landscape, and heritage, and strives to connect people to these places.

But how do you do this effectively, with Israel’s vast diversity of populations, communities, languages and cultures?

Community and volunteer coordinators – Israel Nature and Parks authority

This was the subject of our Orna Shani Golan’s discussion with professionals from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority on January 20. More than 20 community and volunteer coordinators convened in the Afek National Park training class for the first time for a cultural competency seminar.

The coordinators meet people from a wide range of communities on a daily basis, and try, in varied ways, to connect them to values of nature and its preservation. These intercultural meetings often raise dilemmas that the coordinators discussed in the meeting. Examples included issues of language – when there are classes of Jewish students and classes of Arab students – what language will the meeting be conducted in? How do you hold a joint march when a religious school refuses to walk in mixed groups of boys and girls and demands that the secular school to march with boys and girls separately? And what to do with an employee who doesn’t discuss these disagreements about different adaptations with his or her supervisor?

These and other dilemmas dealing with the relationship of the Nature and Parks Authority, which is responsible for nature conservation, nature preserves and national parks, and advancing values of nature preservation in Israel, to the community and to all communities are Israel, must be handled in a culturally competent manner in order for the Authority’s efforts to be effective. This is especially important for communities that live close to nature reserves and whose traditional way of life – hunting, fishing, collecting wild plants, and more – might harm the flora and fauna of the reserves. At the meeting, the coordinators and supervisors spoke with Orna, Director of our Cultural Competency Desk, about the insights that arise from a meeting that uses culturally competent tools, and different tools that can be applied to their work. Some examples of tools included:

How to work correctly with cultural generalities (without sinking into stereotypes);
Understanding cultural values, and using cultural axes to improve inter-cultural communication;
The 7-stage model of deepening dialogue based on the explanatory model of Prof. Arthur Kleinman.

In addition, participants learned about culturally competent tools for community work that were developed by our director, Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir and Dr. Orna Shemer, of The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

We seek to hold additional meetings with the staff of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, according to region, which will help staff respond effectively and in a culturally competent manner to issues and dilemmas that arise from their everyday work.

orna2020-02-22T07:00:45+00:00February 4th, 2020|Blog, Cultural Competence|

Continuing Cultural Competency Training at the Herzfeld Geriatric Hospital

Herzfeld Rehabilitation Hospital in Gedera has begun a process of cultural competence and we’re proud to be part of it. You can read more about our first meeting, here. The hospital belongs to the Clalit Health Services and specializes in the care, support and rehabilitation of elderly patients, and for those with complex medical conditions. We’ve delivered two workshops at the hospital, and the tools and principles of cultural competency that included in the workshops were specially adapted for the needs of the hospital. Communication at the hospital takes place not only with the patients but also with their families, guardians, and caregivers, often patients’ foreign caregivers who stay alongside the patients.

A second cultural competency workshop at the Herzfeld Geriatric Hospital

About 40 employees from all professions and cultural identities participated in the workshops, the second of which took place on December 23, 2019. In the accepting atmosphere of the workshop, the different caregiving professionals shared their experiences and dilemmas. One participant shared the process with the family whose young son was on a respirator in the hospital. The father, a dominant figure in the family, who is also the guardian, is very worried about his son but sometimes his involvement can hurt the son’s treatment. The other family members cannot challenge the authority of the father, who is also the head of the clan. Sensitive and creative ways were needed to keep the son without hurting the father.

Another issue was, how do we deal both with the need for patients to rest, and with the fact that different cultural traditions encourage visits from friends and family during visiting hours? How can we How to overcome religious, cultural and gender conflicts in the food that is served at the hospital?

Learning through real-life examples

And one of the cases that made us most emotional – the daughter of an elderly Ethiopian patient, who is determined to comply with her mother’s demand not to amputate her leg, even if it costs her her life. The need to respect the mother’s wishes at all costs, which was met with a patronizing attitude from one of the professionals. The daughter was torn between different cultural values - respect for her mother’s wishes, respect for medical authority, difficulty in directly challenging authority figures, and a loss of faith in the system.

This story served as the basis for our practice session, with experienced medical actress Hanin Tarbia, who has been working with the JICC for a decade.

Here’s feedback we received from the hospital administration:

We would like to acknowledge the great privilege that we have had in participating in the fascinating workshop you delivered today to the staff of the Herzfeld Geriatric Hospital. The workshop was instructive, enlightening, empowering and very interesting. Your easy-to-understand language, the accessibility of the tools you taught and your vast amount of knowledge, alongside your extraordinary sensitivity and humor, will accompany us and all the participants of the workshop!

The participants felt comfortable participating and sharing and expressed a great deal of interest in this important topic, and were thirsty for the large amount of information they received.

We, too, at the JICC hope that we helped the hospital establish the foundations for a meaningful process of assimilating the principles of cultural competency at the hospital. There is no doubt that the dedicated staff who participated in the workshop can serve as ambassadors for assimilating tools and principles of cultural competence in the hospital.

Many thanks to Herzfeld Medical Center for organizing the workshop.

Naomi Roff2020-01-10T20:56:08+00:00January 8th, 2020|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services|

Santé Israël – Increasing Reach Together with Maccabi Health Services and Jerusalem Municipality

On Thursday, December 5, 2019, Santé Israël, together with Maccabi Health Services, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Qualita organization for French-speaking immigrants, and the National Insurance Institute, held an information evening about health care rights. Some 80 people were in attendance!

Raising awareness about health care rights

The meeting was held at the Qualita offices, in downtown Jerusalem.

A lot of information was provided

Carol Azoulay, who is in charge of working with the French-speaking community in Jerusalem and the central region for Maccabi Health Services, spoke about rights included in the HMO’s supplemental insurance plans. Many members are now aware of rights they are eligible for.

From experts in a lot of areas

Ayala Blum, Director of the Office for Rights Realization for French-speaking immigrants of the Jerusalem Municipality, who also works for Qualita, talked about her role as a source of information about rights in general, above and beyond the health care field. Dr. Yves Bensoussan, a doctor in at the National Insurance Institute in Jerusalem, who helps many French speakers, spoke about common issues: disability for children and adults, rights for seniors who are retiring. And of course, Santé Israël Director Marie Avigad introduced Santé Israël.

Cooperation between a number of bodies, with best results for everyone

Then there was a time for questions and the issues raised:

What are the health insurance supplementary cover? What are the rates?
Rights regarding maternity leave for a salaried employee and an independent worker
The difference between HMO and the National Insurance Institute
Different situations that enable people to become eligible for disability payments
What is nursing care insurance and what is the difference between nursing care insurance provided by the HMO’s and nursing care benefits provided by the National Insurance Institute? (Answer on the Santé Israël website: https://www.sante.org.il/couvertures-des-caisses/ and https://www.sante.org.il/personnes-agees/_)
Where to go in an emergency
Discounts for dental care for children and the elderly
Eyewear for children and adults
Work disability
Social security rights for a patient being treated with chemotherapy
Mental health – How to get treatment through HMOs
Free telephone translation service from the Ministry of Health and the fact that doctors are required to use it if requested by the patient
MDA services – payment and situations where there is no charge

After this session, Marie received a number of requests on Facebook to have similar meetings in other cities, such as Ashkelon, Ashdod, Netanya, in the north. Stay tuned for more!

And here’s a Facebook post from Sante Israel:

And another from Qualita:

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for their continued support of Santé Israël over the years.

Naomi Roff2020-01-10T21:00:19+00:00December 22nd, 2019|Blog, Cultural Competence, Santé Israël - French internet platform on the Israeli healthcare system|

Semi-Annual Meeting of Healthcare Cultural Competency Coordinators at the JICC

For the past three years, we have organized a semi-annual meeting of Healthcare Cultural Competency Coordinators. Most of the Coordinators are from Jerusalem, but the meeting is open to Coordinators from throughout the country. This meeting was held on December 4, 2019 at the JICC’s offices on Mount Zion.

This meeting focused on two subjects: our own Living Safer, Living Longer project, and the experience of the Haifa-based Bnei Zion Hospital in assimilating principles of cultural competence in the hospital.

Aliza Shabo-Hayut, director of the Living Safer, Living Longer project, gave a short introduction and explained the connection to cultural competency. She explained that it was imperative that the project be culturally competent for it to succeed, since it teaches home safety and preventive health to the elderly and young families through awareness-raising and individual mentoring by volunteers, and the ways to achieve this are laden with culturally sensitive issues in different populations, especially in the Haredi and Arab sectors. Currently, the project operates only in Jerusalem, but the model can be copied and replicated throughout the country.

Aliza explains about Living Safer, Living Longer

Making the project fully culturally competent was not an easy task, it essentially meant needing to create and develop 3 different projects – one for the ‘general’ Jewish population, one for the Haredi population, and one for the Arab population. Content (from flyers and posters to explanatory materials for lectures and mentoring sessions) and training methods were specifically tailored for each group (appropriate for Haredi, Arab as well as ‘general’ Jewish beneficiaries), as were training aides, explanatory materials. Volunteers needed to be recruited and trained in each group as well. Checklists of what the volunteers were looking for in the homes were also adapted to both the age (elderly vs. young families) and group with which they were associated. For example, chains to secure hot water urns (used on Shabbat and often the cause of burns among Haredi children) are distributed in Haredi families, whereas there is no need for this in other groups.

We also welcomed special guests from the Bnei Zion hospital in Haifa, who shared their experience of assimilating cultural competence in the hospital. Orly Altman, a general nurse and the Cultural Competency Coordinator at Bnei Zion, and Ragda Halabi, a midwife at the hospital, told how the project began and gave a short lecture.

Orly said that the first step was to establish a steering committee for cultural competency that consisted of representatives from a variety of communities, with a goal to train agents of change to promote cultural competency that promotes mutual respect and human dignity. The committee created a document with important information about each community, including the rules of “do’s and don’ts,” and each member of the committee built a training session about the community to which he or she belongs, and chose how to present it.

Orly, presenting her experience at Bnei Zion Hospital in Haifa

Ragda, a member of the Druze community, introduced us to the principles of the Druze religion: the life cycle and different rituals, the status of women, visitng the sick, escorting Druze religious women for medical exams and more.

The meeting was fascinating and the participants learned more about Druze culture and religion and their connections to health.

Thanks to Michal Schuster for organizing the meetings. And of course, many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, for its continued support of Cultural Competency over the past decade.

orna2019-12-23T07:32:24+00:00December 15th, 2019|Blog, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Living Safer Living Longer|

Cultural Competence Workshop at Herzfeld Geriatric Hospital

Herzfeld Geriatric Rehabilitation Medical Center, operated by the Clalit Health Services, is located in the southern town of Gadera and serves populations in the Gadera / Rehovot area. As part of the hospital’s efforts to integrate cultural competency into the hospital, we were invited to lead Cultural Competency workshops for staff members.

Cultural Competency workshop at Herzfeld Geriatric Hospital

The workshop, which took place on November 21, included staff from all professions in the hospital – doctors, nurses, paramedical and administration – who shared with us the unique challenges of caring for an elderly population, often for a long time. Patients from different cultural groups come to the hospital, often accompanied by foreign workers. Family involvement is also a key factor, as are the physical, mental, and cognitive difficulties of the older people. The staff itself is also very diverse, sometimes assisting patients or families from his or her cultural group in bridging cultural gaps. On the other hand, treating a person from one’s own group can also cause conflicts and dilemmas. One participant told of how she recently gave birth, and in her culture it is customary to give money to the mother right after giving birth. One of the patients approached her during a shift and gave her money. What should she have done? On the one hand, she’s not allowed to receive money or gifts from patients. On the other – this was a cultural convention and it is difficult to change older people’s habits, especially in this type of situation.

In the workshop, we talked about our key cultural values and those of the patients. We tried to identify them in hospital situations, find ways to bridge the gaps, and most importantly – try to interpret behavior, which may at first seem strange or even irritating to us, positively.

Discussing important cases and different cultural situations

In order to understand worldviews, practices and health considerations of a patient, dialogue is a must. Such a conversation, which is based on asking open questions, is especially important when there are gaps between the caregiver and the patient. After watching a short tutorial video produced by the JICC, the participants shared how they identified with the cases where different people in the room have different agendas, and it is the caregiver’s job is to reveal them, and to consider them when communicating with the patient and those accompanying him.

As part of the discussion, we also talked about cases where cultural competence is not the correct or desired response – cases in which adapting to one patient will hurt another (family member or staff member), or when it would cause unethical medical behavior (such as delivering bad news to the patient instead of his or her family, as is customary in some cultures).

The workshop opened up new horizons for all. One participant commented:

We would like to thank you for the great privilege of participating in the fascinating workshop you delivered today for staff at the Herzfeld Geriatric Rehabilitation Hospital Rehabilitation. The workshop was instructive, enlightening, empowering and interesting. Your excellent delivery, the accessibility of the tools you taught and the vast amount of knowledge you have, along with the extraordinary sensitivity and humor will accompany us and all the participants of the workshop! Participants felt comfortable in taking part and in sharing, and expressed great interest in this important topic and were thirsty for the great amount of information they received. Looking forward to the [next] long workshop.

In our next workshop we’ll work with a professional actress, who will help participants to practice the tools they learned, including through role playing.

Many thanks to Herzfeld Medical Center for organizing the meeting and assistance in preparing the content adapted to their needs.

Naomi Roff2019-11-29T13:52:21+00:00November 28th, 2019|Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services|

An Evening of Cultural Competence for Health Care Rights Volunteers from the Jerusalem Municipality

On Tuesday, November 5, we held a special evening for Health Care Rights Volunteers, which was organized by the Community Services Department of the Jerusalem Municipality, with an emphasis on cultural Competency.

The volunteers come from various organizations, such as Santé Israël‘s Bikur Olim project, Kivunim from Hadassah Hospital, the Segula unit at Sha’are Zedek Medical Center, and more, listened to a lecture from our own Aliza Shabo-Hayut, who described the experience of a fictitious immigrant who encounters cultural barriers everywhere – in the education system, on public transport, at the National Insurance Institute and in the hospital. She also described the tools for cultural competence among volunteers are extremely important in helping immigrants and those from different cultures obtain their health rights and navigate the Israeli health system. The lecture received excellent responses and the volunteers noted the importance of the topic and the contribution of the lecture to their work.

Aliza speaking to volunteers

After the lecture specific complex inter-cultural situations were demonstrated through playback theater.

Volunteers night – show time

The choice of cultural competency as the main theme of a special evening recognizing volunteers is part of the process of assimilating cultural competence in the municipal Community Services Department that we’ve been leading in recent years.

Volunteers night – playback time

Many thanks to Sarit Lipkin Wolf from the Community Services Department, for organizing the evening, and to Marie Avigad, coordinator of Sante Israel, who was part of the steering committee for the evening and who brought the subject to the fore. And of course, many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, for its continued support of Cultural Competency over the past decade.

Here’s the post from the Sante Israel Facebook page (in Hebrew and French):

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for its continued support of Santé Israël over the years, and to the Jerusalem Foundation for its support to the JICC cultural competence program.

orna2019-11-16T10:24:20+00:00November 15th, 2019|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Jerusalem Municipality|

Cultural Competency Renewing Skills at Sha’are Zedek

In recent years, we, together with the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, have organized two training courses in medical interpreting. Both courses were joined by bilingual workers and volunteers from Hadassah and ALYN hospitals.

It is very important for Sha’are Zedek to maintain the interpreters’ professional skills, who are called on to translate and interpret patient encounters, in addition to their daily work, sometimes several times a day. Therefore, these professional development days are organized, not only to give them additional skills and updates, but also as a way to appreciate their work.

Encounter for Medical Interpreters

In late June we held a meeting that was attended by interpreters who speak Arabic, Russian, Amharic and French.

We started the day with a discussion about advanced technological tools (artificial intelligence) that can help medical interpreters, and the biggest question of all – can a robot replace the medical interpreter? The answer right now is – absolutely not. Artificial Intelligence experts have made great progress in developing automatic translation tools, or tools to assist interpreters during work (currently for conference interpreters only). But these tools are not yet designed to deal with the unique features of medical interpreting – silence, repetition, a great deal of emotion, slang, various dialects and more. Not to mention complex situations and ethical dilemmas (the husband does not want the interpreter to translate into a wife, for example).

In short – artificial intelligence technologies for translating human languages are getting better every day. What looks like science fiction today will probably be a reality in a year. These tools will not replace human medical interpreters, but it is important to follow the developing technologies to see how we can improve the quality of medical interpretation, without fear of being replaced by robots.

Afterward, Shweki Majed, a hospital employee who is also a regular interpreter and who has taken several interpreting courses, shared with the newer interpreters how interpreting changed him personally and professionally. He told stories openly and honestly of dilemmas he encountered. Here’s an amusing story – One day, as part of his job as an interpreter he translated in the first/ second person, as advised in the training (“you should take the medicine” instrad of “the doctor tells you to take the medicine). Afterward, the patient insisted that he was the doctor, and not the actual doctor. After a few months, they met again at a family event and the person again insisted he was the doctor who treated them. No explanations helped …

Shweki Majed speaking to the forum

Ms. Vered Huber – Machlin, Director of the hospital’s Physical Therapy Department, was the third speaker. She has studied the field of patient experience. The health system and physicians are often focused on the illness, and she is bringing the field of medical interpreting to a patient-centered treatment regime – how the disease affects him, his concerns, the basic information he needs to receive, and ways to get him involved in the treatment. She talked about the interpreter’s unique role in this context, as well as its limits.

Interpretation as part of a patient-centered experience

Many thanks to everyone who organized this wonderful day, and especially to Tali Arazi and Efrat Cohen.

And of course, many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, for its continued support of Cultural Competency over the past decade.

Naomi Roff2019-09-15T15:28:50+00:00July 18th, 2019|Attaa, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services|

Graduating a New Class of Medical Interpreters

On April 16 we held our graduation ceremony for yet another class of medical interpreters. It marked the completion of a 45-hour course in basic skills of medical interpreting, which was held at Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

Integrating more medical interpreters into health care staffs

The course helped people working in medical institutions to learn interpretation skills in order to volunteer in the institution in which they work. The 27 participants came from Shaare Zedek, Hadassah Ein Kerem, ALYN Rehabilitative Hospital, as well as additional places outside of Jerusalem. The course dealt both with principles of interpreting, various issues in the field, as well as relevant vocabulary in Arabic, Amharic, Russian and French. A special thank-you goes to Messele Mamo, who joined the team at the last minute to teach the section for Amharic-speakers.

Course graduates are already being integrated into interpreting teams in the institutions in which they work. We just got an SMS from one participant, thanking us for the tools he learned in the course, and exclaiming how they help him make health care more accessible to the French-speaking patients he translates for.

Many thanks to Dr. Adit Dayan, Director of Community Services at the Jerusalem Foundation, who distributed the graduation certificates. And many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for its strategic partnership in developing Cultural Competency for more than the past decade.

Naomi Roff2019-05-11T04:38:43+00:00April 29th, 2019|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services|

Course for Medical Interpreters in Jerusalem

Have you ever waited for a doctor’s appointment at an outpatient clinic and the nurse comes out and asks, “Can someone help us in translating into Arabic / Russian/ Amharic / French?” Usually, a passer-by will volunteer to help translate the conversation between the specialist and the embarrassed patient, whose secrets are now being exposed to an inexperienced stranger at best. Research tells us the chances are that the quality of translation will be poor, and the chances of making a mistake in such a non-professional translation are very high. And who knows what the quality of health care will be like?

Medical Interpreting Course held at Sha’are Zedek Medical Center

In January 2019 we opened another course for medical interpreting (i.e. oral translation) skills for medical professionals and volunteers in Jerusalem hospitals. There, the 30 participants are learning to do it right. (because even the Russian and Hebrew-speaking nurse will interpret poorly if he or she hasn’t learned best practices, ethics and proper terminology.) Participants come from Hadassah, Sha’are Zedek, ALYN Rehabilitative Hospitals. There are also some independent participants.

30 participants, from throughout Jerusalem

Our Dr. Michal Schuster, who has led with us the field of Cultural Competency for over a decade, is leading the course. She’s noted, “One of the things I most like to do in these courses is to take things apart and build them back up. To deconstruct existing viewpoints (either conscious and unconscious) about language, translation and interpreting, and, together with the participants, build a strong basis for proper and more accurate interpreting. It’s not an easy process at all – neither for me nor for them – but it is very rewarding.”

The team working with Michal are the language experts: Tanya Voinova, Salih Sawaed and Messale Mamo.

Learning what medical interpretation is, its main challenges, and why it is so complex

One more step in making Jerusalem friendlier – and more culturally competent and culturally sensitive – to all its residents.

Many thanks to our partners

This course could not have taken place without the partnership of the Jerusalem Foundation, our strategic partner in Cultural Competency for over a decade. And many thanks to our partners in action Sha’are Zedek Medical Center (who are graciously hosting the course), Hadassah Medical Center, and Alyn Pediatric and Adolescent Rehabilitation Center.

Here’s the Facebook post written by our Director, Hagai Agmon-Snir:

And Michal’s post:

Naomi Roff2019-03-02T12:43:12+00:00February 24th, 2019|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services|

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