Staff Recognised for Contribution to Welsh Language
1 March 2021
Three members of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board staff have received recognition for their efforts to promote the Welsh language.
Lorraine Coultis, Dr Hywel Roberts and Lorena Garcia-Wright have each received the new Welsh Language Awards for their efforts in promoting, progressing and celebrating the Welsh Language in the Health Board.
The new awards, Sponsored by Cardiff & Vale Health Charity, have been introduced to recognise staff who have made a great contribution to the development of the Welsh language in their departments and service areas.
Launched on St David’s Day, the Welsh Language Awards will be given annually to highlight those individuals who have made changes in their working practice to ensure that the Welsh language is fully embraced.
Lorraine Coultis, Children's Theatres Clinical Leader, Noah's Ark Children’s Hospital, was chosen for the award for her enthusiasm and drive to ensure all patients and staff are able to access the Welsh Language while in Children's Theatres by creating Welsh Language displays for patients to engage with prior to surgery.
Lorraine also initiated an interactive Welsh language mural to welcome young patients and their families to Space Ward at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales.
The second inaugural award winner is Dr Hywel Roberts, Consultant in Critical Care Medicine, University Hospital of Wales, for ensuring all Welsh speaking and non-Welsh speaking staff on his ward had access to stickers he created in his own time for staff to identify themselves to patients as Welsh speaking, while wearing PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hywel also kindly offered to share this idea with the Welsh Language Department for staff to use on other wards if needed.
This year’s third winner is Lorena Garcia-Wright, Occupational Therapy, University Hospital Llandough, for working with elderly Welsh speaking patients on older people’s mental health wards, E12 in particular, and creating a wall for them interact with alongside staff where they place the day, date, season, among other things on a daily basis to keep their minds active, which incorporated the Welsh Language.
Jessica Sharp, Welsh Language Officer at Cardiff and Vale UHB said: “Providing our services through the medium of Welsh can significantly enhance care for our Welsh speaking patients, and I would like to thank and congratulate Lorraine, Dr Roberts and Lorena for their efforts in contributing to this.
“This is the first year the Health Board will participate in anything like this, I’m hoping that it will encourage others to join in and help us move towards becoming a truly bilingual health board in the years ahead.”
The awards form part of the Health Board’s new Meddwl Cymraeg – Think Welsh campaign, which encourages employees to put the Welsh Language at the forefront of their thinking, and consider how they can contribute to making services more accessible to Welsh speakers.
The Welsh Language team have also been working on a Welsh Language mascot, who featured in the Space Ward mural, which will be used to promote Welsh language within the Health Board.
To find out more about the Welsh Language Awards or how you can help to increase the use of the Welsh Language across the Health Board as part of the Meddwl Cymraeg – Think Welsh campaign, please email cav.welshlanguageteam@wales.nhs.uk
To find out more about how Cardiff & Vale Health Charity can help make things better for patients, staff and visitors to our hospitals please visit the Health Charity Website.