25 January 2010

The National Prescribing Service (NPS) is looking for bilingual doctors and pharmacists who speak Greek, Arabic, Macedonian, Croatian, Spanish or Korean to participate in interviews with multicultural media.

“As part of our commitment to ensuring all Australians access the same information about medicines, we do a lot of work with culturally and linguistically diverse audiences,” NPS acting CEO Karen Kaye said.

NPS has funded a number of ethno-specific organisations to run in-language seminars about safe medicines use and other health topics over the next six months. The workshops will be run across Australia, with sessions in both capital cities and regional centres, and will be promoted in multicultural and broader media.

“We are actively engaging multicultural radio as a way to connect with diverse audiences. Many elderly people with low English proficiency rely on radio for information including important health tips,” Ms Kaye said.

The NPS has worked closely with the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Council Australia (FECCA) over the last 5 years to produce resources for diverse communities including:

• translated generic medicines education resources and flyers (Chinese, Italian, Greek, Vietnamese)
• translated brochures (Macedonian, Croatian, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Vietnamese)
• pain management diary (Chinese)
• radio campaigns, and
• a teachers kit for those undertaking English as a second language classes.

Pharmacists interested in being involved will be given the opportunity for formal media training and be compensated for their time (average commitment is approximately two hours per month).

For further details contact NPS senior program officer, Jackie Stephenson, on 02 8217 8756 or email jstephenson@nps.org.au

ENDS

The National Prescribing Service Limited (NPS) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation for quality use of medicines funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.