{"id":462417,"date":"2026-06-05T13:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/462417\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:30:12","slug":"new-health-care-resource-for-anglophones-arrives-southwest-of-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/462417\/","title":{"rendered":"New health-care resource for anglophones arrives southwest of Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

A Quebec-wide initiative aimed at making health-care services more accessible to English speakers has officially arrived in the Mont\u00e9r\u00e9gie West health network.<\/p>\n

Known as “Projet ALLO,” the program uses the colour yellow to identify health-care workers who are comfortable helping patients in English.<\/p>\n

In the CISSS de la Mont\u00e9r\u00e9gie-Ouest, employees who volunteer to participate wear a yellow card behind their employee badge that says \u201cJe parle fran\u00e7ais, English\u201d (I speak French, English.) <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really about informing and assisting English-speaking users when they\u2019re coming to our facilities to access services,\u201d said Karissa Clayberg, the English liaison officer with the CISSS.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoKarissa Clayberg is the English liaison officer with the CISSS de la Mont\u00e9r\u00e9gie-Ouest and helped launch the program in April. (CBC)<\/p>\n

While the initiative already exists in several Quebec regions, the Mont\u00e9r\u00e9gie West, which stretches from La Prairie to Vaudreuil-Dorion, and includes facilities such as H\u00f4pital Anna-Laberge, the Barrie Memorial Hospital, the Suro\u00eet Regional Hospital, and the new hospital under construction in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, only began implementing it in this spring.<\/p>\n

Participation is voluntary<\/p>\n

Employees who choose to wear the cards are signalling that they feel comfortable answering questions, helping patients navigate facilities or assisting in English when needed. The program is designed not only to help English-speaking patients, but also to assist staff members who may not speak the language themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t always know what languages are spoken by our colleagues, so if they\u2019re wearing it, it means I can call upon my colleague quickly to help me if I am unable to,\u201d Clayberg said.<\/p>\n

The initiative was developed in collaboration with the Mont\u00e9r\u00e9gie West Community Network (MWCN), which helped finance the first batch of cards.<\/p>\n

\"PaulinePauline Wiedow of the Mont\u00e9r\u00e9gie West Community Network says accessing health-care services in English is a right. (CBC)<\/p>\n

The MWCN, which advocates for more than 100,000 English speakers across the area, said the goal of the program was to help connect people who were avoiding a trip to the hospital due to these barriers.<\/p>\n

“The isolation, especially of seniors, who were dreading going to the hospital \u2014 who were waiting before they were going to the hospital and that became dangerous,” said executive director Pauline Wiedow.<\/p>\n

‘Positive feedback’<\/p>\n

Martha McComber, a local resident, says she’s in favour of the initiative. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot all of us are fluent. I try to speak some French to some people in establishments and in the hospital,” she said.<\/p>\n

Timothy Church says a program like Projet ALLO could help prevent the kinds of situations he’s witnessed.<\/p>\n

“In order to get information with the staff, sometimes they walk away and they have to go find an English worker to come and try and help you,” he said. <\/p>\n

\"MarthaLocal resident Martha McComber says the program is good, because Quebec is not just a French province. (CBC)<\/p>\n

The broader goal is to eventually associate the colour yellow as the provincewide symbol for English-language assistance in health-care settings.<\/p>\n

The project has been launched in other regional health-care authorities, including the C\u00f4te-Nord, Estrie, Abitibi-T\u00e9miscamingue and the Outaouais. In the Gatineau-area region, the initiative has been in place since September 2024.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve had very positive feedback on it both from users of the health service as well as employees,” said Kaara Brown, the Outaouais health network\u2019s English-language liaison representative.<\/p>\n

According to Brown, more than 2,100 yellow cards have already been distributed in the region, accounting for just under 20 per cent of the workforce.<\/p>\n

“It helps users give them peace of mind that they\u2019re going to find somebody who can help them out,” she said.<\/p>\n

Brown acknowledged that public awareness remains one of the biggest challenges.<\/p>\n

“That is the most difficult part though \u2014 getting it out there to people,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-462417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}