Improving the provision of Translation and Interpreting Services in aged care

Are you interested in improving outcomes for the most vulnerable in the community? And have experience or interest in public health, aged care and or people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds? Students can join the researchers on the PRACTIS: PRimary health and Aged Care Translation and Interpreting Services project. PRACTIS aims to understand and address the effect of translation and interpreting services provision for residential aged care residents with limited English proficiency on residents’ quality of life and healthcare provision. There are a number of student opportunities to join PRACTIS – talk to one of the investigators listed to learn more or create your own project. POSSIBLE PROJECTS INCLUDE: • What are the effects of translation and interpreting services provision to older Australians with limited English proficiency in community aged care? This may include in-home nursing and palliative care as well as access to other community services and healthcare. • What are the effects of language barriers due to staff limited English proficiency in aged care? • What is the the current use of translating and interpreting services in residential aged care? This project will analyse a national data set of translation and interpreting service usage with the option of linking this data with other national or local data sets (e.g. census data, hospital usage data). • Designing a toolkit for communication in aged care – matching communication needs to existing tools and services. • Increasing the provision of free interpreting services in aged care - design and testing of a multi-strategy implementation strategy. SUPERVISION Your supervisors have outstanding track records across a breadth of topic areas, and are from two Faculties - Medicine and Arts. They are very experienced, highly trained and accredited with Monash Graduate Research to supervise a range of research candidates. You will become part of the PRACTIS team. PRACTIS is a cross Faculty (Arts and Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences) and multi School (Primary and Allied Health Care (SPAHC) and Public Health and Preventive Medicine (SPHPM)) initiative at Monash University. The project team is co-led by Dr Katrina Long and Dr Jim Hlavac, with co-investigators Dr Joanne Enticott, Prof Terry Haines, Prof Keith Hill and A/Prof Ben Harris-Roxas (UNSW). PRACTIS is working in partnership with key industry and government partners: the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing, Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, enliven, the Migrant and Refugee Health Partnership and the Commonwealth government Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National). The team also has strong ties with the RAIL (Rehabilitation, Ageing & Independent Living) Research Centre in the SPAHC and the National Centre for Healthy Ageing so the PhD candidate can grow and learn using the centre’s experts, networks and resources. The project provides a supportive environment for researchers, with supervision and mentorship of a designated academic supervisor, regular team meetings, excellent study facilities and parking on site. Students will work from the Peninsula Campus. Early career research support groups and training are also available.