An innovative initiative to improve communication in the medical field
Hospital de Cerdanya has implemented a pioneering system to improve communication with patients who have speech difficulties or who directly do not speak. This new system, developed in collaboration with the Alfons I School in Puigcerdà, consists of the use of pictograms to facilitate interaction with patients such as young people with special needs, foreigners or elderly people with communication difficulties.
A visual language for better autonomy
This initiative has emerged from the collaboration between the hospital and the school as part of the Magnet project. During this collaboration, the difficulty of students with special needs to communicate with medical professionals has been highlighted. This has led to the development of a set of images related to the body, sensations and the hospital environment, with the aim of providing non-speaking patients with a tool to increase their autonomy in the medical environment.
Implementation and expansion of the new system
The new visual language has been integrated into specialist doctors’ consultations, printed in leaflets for patient use and a digital version with a touch tablet has been developed. In addition, work is underway to adapt the texts and pictograms to French in order to offer this communication tool to French-speaking patients.
A fruitful collaboration
The Magnet program, promoted by the Department of Education, the Jaume Bofill Foundation, the Barcelona Education Consortium and the UAB Institute of Education Sciences, has been key in this initiative. This program encourages collaboration between educational centers and institutions of excellence to develop innovative projects that have a positive impact on the community.
