Cultural mediation

To promote accessibility to health services, better communication and consequently adherence to the proposed treatment, while respecting cultural diversity, a cultural mediation service can be activated within EOC facilities.

Importance of cultural mediation

Cultural mediation helps to overcome language and cultural barriers between patients and health care personnel. This is especially crucial when the patient comes from a different cultural background or does not speak our language. Cultural mediation enables clear and accurate communication between patient and medical staff, ensuring mutual understanding of medical information, thus enabling appropriate treatment and better health care.

Cultural mediation at the EOC

In the case of language or cultural understanding issues, a translator or cultural mediator can be requested.
The heterogeneity and richness of different cultures present among EOC employees has made it possible to create a group of in-house interpreters who can intervene to support communication between caregivers and patients.

In parallel, the institution has signed a partnership withSOS Ticino's DERMAN Agency, which can be activated in case of need, through the EOC Social Service.
Since 2017, there has also been a cultural mediator at the Mendrisio office, whose support can also be requested from the other EOC offices.

The cultural mediator can be reached at the following numbers:
+41 (0)91 811 35 22
[email protected]

CULTURAL MEDIAZONE

Swiss Health Network for Equity

At the behest of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), 17 health care institutions, including the EOC with its Mendrisio site, have made efforts in recent years to make the issue of health equity more visible and to improve the quality of care for certain disadvantaged segments of the population. Therefore, some programs have been implemented and health equity is currently considered in the strategic documents and personnel management policy of several institutions.
The State Secretariat of Migration (SEM) and the Service for Combating Racism also participate in the development of the network.

In response to these activities, the association "Swiss Health Network for Equity" (replacing "Swiss Hospital for Equity") was established in 2023, and the EOC is among the founding members.
The association pursues the following goals:

  • to promote health equity to political bodies, health authorities and other actors in the Swiss health care system;
  • To stimulate best practices and knowledge transfer among members;
  • offer advice and impart expert knowledge to organizations;
  • develop quality of care by promoting an institutional approach to health equity;
  • define health equity indicators and, more generally, promote research in the specific field;
  • raise awareness among health professionals through training courses, study days, and conferences.

The English version of this page was created with the aid of automatic translation tools and may contain errors and omissions.
The original version is the page in Italian.