Mater announced as finalists in the 2019 Multicultural Queensland Awards

06/Aug/2019     Health

Mater is honoured to be named a finalist of the Minister’s Choice Award for Outstanding Engagement as part of the 2019 Multicultural Queensland Awards to be announced in August. 

Two initiatives established at Mater have been recognised. 

One initiative has seen Mater Refugee Health working with the State Government in developing sustainable employment pathways to improve opportunities available to health professionals from refugee and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.  This program has seen two international medical graduates from refugee backgrounds undertaking observerships at Mater which have been highly successful.

The second initiative involves the Cultural Diversity Unit and Mater Education team working with staff as part of the Inter-professional Clinical Orientation Program (ICOP) to improve access to and raise awareness of the availability of professional interpreters at short notice 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The ICOP education team have created a program that asks volunteer participants to play the role of the clinician and the patient with limited English proficiency.

The aim is to increase confidence and competence in staff in their ability to contact the phone interpreter service on demand.

Members of the Mater team will attend the 2019 Multicultural Queensland Awards dinner on Friday 30 August, where winners will be announced.

Congratulations to the many people at Mater who advocate for culturally diverse members of our community every day.

Pictured at the Finalists event:
L-R – Donata Sackey (Mater Refugee Health Service Associate Director), The Hon. Stirling Hinchliffe MP (Minister for Local Government, Minister for Racing and Minister for Multicultural Affairs), Beata Ostapiej-Piatkowski (Romero Centre Manager), Caroline Nicholson (Mater UQ Centre for Integrated Care and Innovation Director)

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