‘Talking’ dementia and diabetes
Two new Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS) Vietnamese ‘talking’ books on diabetes and dementia are in production and due for release early next year.
RDNS diversity coordinator, Rosemarie Draper, at a community consultation session with the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association in Victoria's St Albans.
The publications join the suite of RDNS talking books in other languages which have already proved to be successful for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities and clinicians.
RDNS provides healthcare to people from more than 150 countries. Between them, they speak about 120 languages.
RDNS diversity manager, Jaklina Michael, is managing the production of both books. Diversity coordinator, Rosemarie Draper, and senior clinical nurse advisor for diabetes, Tracy Aylen, have worked closely with staff from Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association seeking feedback from the Vietnamese community on the diabetes book.
Similar checks with the community are being made on the content for the dementia talking book which has critical involvement from the RDNS Institute – in particular Drs Susan Koch, Di Goeman and dementia specialist nurse, Jordan King.
Italian, Greek and Macedonian talking books on diabetes are already on the RDNS website. These are used by RDNS staff and health professionals globally to provide high quality, easily understandable information on diabetes to diverse client groups.
As these are audio visual multimedia products, they are also accessible to and support people with low schooling and literacy levels and/or vision impairments.
As the talking books are being translated, RDNS follows the 10 standards for translations that are part of RDNS policy. An integral part of the standards is ensuring that consumers are actively involved in the development of any products and have opportunities to provide feedback on whether translations are language and culture appropriate for older people from Vietnamese background.
Community sessions through the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association have been held in Victoria's St Albans, Richmond and Maidstone.
“These sessions enable us to ‘road test’ the translated information with consumers who potentially will be using the end-product,” Ms Draper said. “We have received excellent suggestions for improvements and changes to help make the translation easier to understand. This is essential before we go to the next step – having the information recorded for the actual Talking Book.”
The diabetes book is funded by State Trustees Australia Foundation. The dementia book is funded by the Samuel Nissen Charitable Foundation, managed by Perpetual.
