Translating for your older parents at the GP? A professional interpreter can be free

The son or daughter in the next chair, translating for an older parent at the GP, is doing a job that a professional interpreter can do at no cost to the family, as long as the parent is eligible for Medicare and the visit is a Medicare-rebateable one in private practice. There is also a phone number, or rather two: 131 450 and 1300 131 450. Both belong to TIS National, an interpreting service provided by the Department of Home Affairs. Neither is any use to someone who does not know it exists. The longer one is the line a private practice calls for an immediate phone interpreter, at any hour of any day. The shorter one, the same six digits without the 1300, is the first call for an interpreter on the National Dementia Helpline and at My Aged Care.

The 2021 Census counted 673,352 people in Australia who were born in India, and 42,294 of them were 65 or over. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ QuickStats page does not say how many of those older residents spoke English not well or not at all. Its 2021 figure covers the India-born of all ages: 27,879 people, or 4.1 per cent, against 10.0 per cent of all residents born overseas. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has split its figures by age group for older Australians of every birthplace, using the 2016 Census. Among older people who spoke a language other than English, 73 per cent of those aged 65 to 69 spoke English well or very well. Among those over 100, the share was 50 per cent.

The practice makes the call

At a private GP, the free interpreter is arranged through the Free Interpreting Service, which the Australian Government funds and TIS National delivers. It gives private medical practitioners free access to professional certified interpreters “to communicate complex or technical information” to patients with limited English proficiency. GPs can use it. So can nurse practitioners, endorsed midwives and approved medical specialists, along with practice support staff, administration staff and practice nurses among them, who use the practitioner’s client code. Each practitioner needs a separate code for every practice they work in, and that code is used to request an interpreter.

Three conditions apply. The service must be Medicare-rebateable, it must be delivered in private practice, and the patient must be eligible for Medicare. TIS National describes that group as “Australian citizens, permanent residents and select temporary visa holders”. Public health services are ruled out in so many words: the service “cannot be used for Australian or state/territory government-funded public health services and programs”.

Community pharmacies can use it too, through the same 1300 number, to dispense medication and give advice among other things, again for customers who are eligible for Medicare. TIS National’s page for non-English speakers names private medical practitioners and pharmacies in a list of services, and its instruction is short: “If you visit one of these services, ask the staff for an interpreter.” The staff can organise it at no cost. Anyone who would prefer an interpreter of a particular gender is asked to say so as soon as possible, and TIS National will try to provide one.

The professional interpreter comes first

Dementia Australia’s Hindi page offers nine resources, on subjects from memory worries and early planning to changed behaviours and taking a break. The page sends readers to the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500, and tells anyone who needs an interpreter to call 131 450 first.

The helpline is free and confidential, and Dementia Australia says it is open around the clock, every day of the year. It is for people living with dementia and for those who know and care for someone with it, as well as anyone concerned about their own thinking, mood and memory. Besides emotional support and guidance, it can discuss government support, My Aged Care included.

Hindi is on the list; Tamil is not

My Aged Care, the Australian Government’s aged care website, publishes translated information in 21 languages. The list takes in Hindi, Punjabi and Nepali, but has no Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Malayalam or Bengali. The site says it is still updating its translated material in line with the new Aged Care Act.

Its Hindi page has resources and videos, and a three-step route to an interpreter. The caller rings TIS National on 131 450, names the language, and asks the interpreter to call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422. Another page on the site, for people from culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse backgrounds, puts the offer in one line: “TIS National offers free interpreting services to you, your family and loved ones.”

Phrase cards and interpreter cards

Alongside My Aged Care sits Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care, or PICAC. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing funds seven organisations to deliver it, one for each state and territory, except that New South Wales and the ACT share one. They support aged care providers to deliver culturally appropriate care, and older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their families to make informed decisions about their aged care. The department directs older people who want a PICAC organisation’s help to My Aged Care’s support for people from those backgrounds.

In Victoria, the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing administers the program with project funding from the department. The centre says it has more than 25 years’ experience supporting aged care providers to meet the needs of older people from those backgrounds. Its multilingual resources include communication cards, bilingual phrase cards, a cultural care plan and interpreter cards.

At the GP, the 1300 number and the client code are the practice’s business. TIS National’s instruction to the patient is to ask the staff for an interpreter.