Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN)
Connecting people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and General Practitioners through telecommunications: How can health care consumers be informed, represented and protected/ safeguarded?
Dr Louise Greenstock and Ms Catriona Fraaser
The overarching goal of this project is to generate increased awareness within the broader community about the role of telecoms in health care, particularly as a bridge to communication for consumers from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds and the health professionals interacting with them. The project will focus on the informed and responsible use of telecoms in this context, and will encourage consumers to explore their rights and obligations.
Specifically, the project aims to:
- identify what kind of telecoms are currently used by patients from CALD backgrounds, their carers and their GPs and for what purpose (for example, access to health information, two/three-way doctor-patient-carer communication, health education)
- explore the extent to which patients, carers and GPs , as three groups of consumers, are informed about their use of telecoms in a health care context and identify how each group currently source information about how and why to use various ‘types’ of telecoms (for example, phone, sms, email, social networking, online consultations)
- identify what health information patients from CALD backgrounds would like to have access to and which ‘type’ of telecom system could play a role in providing this
- scope the implications for consumers of increased use of telecoms in primary health care and the interface with other service providers and secure transmission of sensitive information
