Bringing relevant information to diverse groups about emergency department services: The BRIDGE project

Abstract

Emergency departments (EDs) need to engage with the community to ensure fairer access to health resources.

A particularly vulnerable group in the general community are people from non English speaking backgrounds (NESB). The ED at St George Hospital in Sydney developed an innovative project aimed at bringing relevant information to diverse groups about community services and EDs. This became known as the BRIDGE project.

The project involved a diverse group of stakeholders from the community, the area health service and the hospital. As an education program it sought to inform our local NESB community about health care choices. Part of the program involved the development of a video, which has been produced in six different languages. We believe a community better informed about health care services will improve personal health care decision-making and resource utilisation.