Hywel Dda Health Board sweeps the board at awards
Hywel Dda Health Board has won the most awards of any health board in the Welsh Language in Healthcare Awards 2013.
The awards and one-day conference help to share best practice and ensure Welsh language provision is an important element of the care process across the country. The event also promotes the responsibility of health and care providers to actively offer a Welsh language service.
The health board won four awards for its excellence in promoting Welsh language and giving patients a language choice.
Hywel Dda Health Board had joint winners in the first category of the day – Work done with priority groups – Older People.
Michelle Gerard Wilson and the orthopaedic elective team in Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli provides a pre and post operative bilingual patient centred care programme for hip and knee replacement patients. They won for recognising that they must deliver a bilingual patient centred care programme, which includes speaking to patients in their preferred language, bilingual professional wall posters and booklets. Language choice is acknowledged from the outset.
Beca Stilwell Clinical Psychologist, Older Adults Psychology, Pembrokeshire also won the category Work done with priority groups – Older People. Her research project explores whether Welsh/English bilingual individuals' performance on a standardised clinical memory task (verbal free recall memory task) was equal to that of English monolinguals. Clinicians working with older adults rely on standardised measures (in English only) to distinguish between memory loss associated with normal aging and the effects of dementia. This research provides guidance on what needs to be done before the course and progression of memory loss among bilingual populations referred to memory clinics in Wales.
The health board’s e-Learning project won the Education and Training Initiatives which promote a bilingual workforce category. This project is the result of collaboration between the Welsh language unit and the learning and development team. The programme provides guidance on the Welsh Language Scheme including self-assessments to support the workforce to make informed decisions in planning or delivering Welsh-medium services. It contains a section on the history of the language and a language laboratory to develop and improve the user’s basic language skills.
The fourth winner was the Workforce and Organisational Development and Welsh language unit for producing the health board’s Bilingual Skills Strategy. Bilingual Skills Strategy was developed in 2012 – being the first health board in Wales to do so. The strategy helps ensure enough staff with appropriate language skills, to deliver a healthcare service bilingually; through the medium of Welsh or English according to personal need.
Director of Corporate Services Chris Wright said: “I am extremely proud of our success in the awards. Everyday our staff put our patients at the centre of what they do and providing bilingual services is just one example of how they do this. The awards also demonstrates Hywel Dda’s commitment to providing a language choice wherever possible.”
The awards and one-day conference help to share best practice and ensure Welsh language provision is an important element of the care process across the country. The event also promotes the responsibility of health and care providers to actively offer a Welsh language service.
The health board won four awards for its excellence in promoting Welsh language and giving patients a language choice.
Hywel Dda Health Board had joint winners in the first category of the day – Work done with priority groups – Older People.
Michelle Gerard Wilson and the orthopaedic elective team in Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli provides a pre and post operative bilingual patient centred care programme for hip and knee replacement patients. They won for recognising that they must deliver a bilingual patient centred care programme, which includes speaking to patients in their preferred language, bilingual professional wall posters and booklets. Language choice is acknowledged from the outset.
Beca Stilwell Clinical Psychologist, Older Adults Psychology, Pembrokeshire also won the category Work done with priority groups – Older People. Her research project explores whether Welsh/English bilingual individuals' performance on a standardised clinical memory task (verbal free recall memory task) was equal to that of English monolinguals. Clinicians working with older adults rely on standardised measures (in English only) to distinguish between memory loss associated with normal aging and the effects of dementia. This research provides guidance on what needs to be done before the course and progression of memory loss among bilingual populations referred to memory clinics in Wales.
The health board’s e-Learning project won the Education and Training Initiatives which promote a bilingual workforce category. This project is the result of collaboration between the Welsh language unit and the learning and development team. The programme provides guidance on the Welsh Language Scheme including self-assessments to support the workforce to make informed decisions in planning or delivering Welsh-medium services. It contains a section on the history of the language and a language laboratory to develop and improve the user’s basic language skills.
The fourth winner was the Workforce and Organisational Development and Welsh language unit for producing the health board’s Bilingual Skills Strategy. Bilingual Skills Strategy was developed in 2012 – being the first health board in Wales to do so. The strategy helps ensure enough staff with appropriate language skills, to deliver a healthcare service bilingually; through the medium of Welsh or English according to personal need.
Director of Corporate Services Chris Wright said: “I am extremely proud of our success in the awards. Everyday our staff put our patients at the centre of what they do and providing bilingual services is just one example of how they do this. The awards also demonstrates Hywel Dda’s commitment to providing a language choice wherever possible.”
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