Background: In a part of Wales where over 50% of the population were bilingual, one community physical rehabilitation services had no Welsh speaking therapists. This research attempts to find whether Welsh speakers had the same access to health and social care services and whether their outcomes were similar to non-Welsh speaking patients; and what the service users' opinion were on Welsh language services. Methodology: 1 - Therapy inputs and outcomes of service users who spoke Welsh were compared to service users who did not speak Welsh with a rehabilitation team where no therapists spoke Welsh. 2 - The ratio of Welsh speakers referred to the rehabilitation services and accepted for services were compared with the ratio of Welsh speakers in the general population. 3 - 201 service users were asked for their opinion on services and their language choice, and the possible effect on their ability to effectively receive a rehabilitation service. Results: Significantly fewer Welsh speakers were referred to the rehabilitation service than the anticipated percentage (p < 0.001). Wales' social services do not document individuals' language preference consistently. A significant difference was found in the therapy outcomes measured by outcome measures according to the patients' language if the practitioners could not speak Welsh. Welsh speaking patients had significantly lower results following rehabilitation than non-Welsh speakers (p < 0.05). The vast majority of Welsh speaking patients who were asked believed they would have preferred receiving services in Welsh. Conclusion: Awareness raising training for practitioners and carers, as well as language training, including 'little words' training, would support availability of Welsh language services. Consideration should be given to creating a specialist national agency to maintain a database of Welsh speaking practitioners, from which health boards and local authorities could buy their services when appropriate.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:678374 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Owen, Huw Dylan |
| Publisher | Swansea University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42664 |
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