Multiculturalism at The Montreal Children’s Hospital

Since 1986, the Multiculturalism Program at The Montreal Children’s Hospital, the first of its kind in Canada, has been reaching out to immigrant families and helping them cope with illness by promoting cross-cultural sensitivity within the healthcare system. Almost two decades later, the program has maintained the same objective: to sensitize healthcare professionals to the importance of different ethno-cultural beliefs and practices related to illness. Interpreters working as cultural liaisons in over 50 different languages and dialects are working to integrate various cultural beliefs into hospital treatment and assessment.