Consultant, Newcomer Cultural

The Opportunity

Operating within and accountable to the mandates, strategic priorities, operational plans, and governance structures of the Health Equity, Safety, and Wellness portfolio in which this position resides, the Newcomer and Cultural Consultant supports the development and coordination of programs, resources and practices that promote culturally safe and equitable experiences for newcomers, immigrants and diverse cultural communities across IWK Health. This position provides cultural guidance to staff and healthcare teams, supports education initiatives, coordinates translated materials, and contributes to departmental policy, program, and service development. Working collaboratively with internal teams and community partners, the position identifies barriers, strengthens relationships, and advances equitable access to services and culturally responsive care experiences for patients and families. All activities and deliverables are aligned with established departmental objectives, priorities, and reporting structures.

• Provides cultural context and guidance to promote and support understanding among patients, families, healthcare providers, and cultural communities, and assists healthcare teams in addressing cultural barriers where appropriate to promote culturally and linguistically safe and appropriate services for newcomers, immigrants and diverse cultural communities.
• Builds and maintains relationships with newcomer, immigrant, and diverse cultural communities to support engagement, strengthen partnerships, facilitate information sharing, and connect healthcare teams with relevant community resources.
• Identifies barriers to equitable access and contributes to the selection, development, implementation, and evaluation of strategies intended to improve culturally safe and equitable experiences.
• Collaborates with internal teams, health-system partners, government, and non-government organizations to support shared initiatives related to newcomer health, cultural safety and equitable access.
• Collects, reviews and incorporates information received from various sources to contributes to the development, review and implementation of policies, processes, programs, and cultural support strategies related to newcomers, cultural safety and equitable access.
• Identifies trends, and conducts surveys and jurisdictional reviews on best practices, recurring barriers and emerging issues affecting newcomers and cultural communities and brings relevant themes forward to appropriate internal or external planning bodies to promote and support culturally and linguistically safe and appropriate services for newcomers, immigrants and diverse cultural communities.
• Develops, tracks and reports on relevant performance indicators and supports measurement and evaluation activities related to assigned programs and initiatives.
• Supports administrative processes associated with cultural and translation services, including tracking translated materials, contracts and invoices, identifying and coordinating translation requirements for patient letters, reports and educational materials in collaboration with appropriate team members.
• Coordinates staff education and training by identifying relevant topics through staff feedback, emerging newcomer and immigration trends, and available evidence and practices.
• Supports the development and implementation of department, portfolio and organizational strategies, programs, initiatives and operational initiatives and provides guidance or assistance within or outside team as needed.

Hours of Work

Mon-Fri, 37.5 weekly

Your Qualifications

• Community / Career College Diploma (2-3 years) required
• Minimum of two (2) years of related experience
• Demonstrate skills to analyze and evaluate information from patients, families, staff, community partners, healthcare trends and relevant practices to identify cultural or access barriers and determine appropriate guidance, resources or recommendations.
• Assesses alternatives and contributes to strategies to address identified barriers, escalating unresolved or broader issues to the Director as appropriate.
• Maintain communication with patients, families, staff, physicians, community organizations and health-system partners to explain cultural perspectives, identify barriers and promote culturally safe approaches.
• Requires oral and written fluency in Arabic and English to communicate with patients, families and healthcare teams and support culturally and linguistically appropriate care.
• Adapts communication to different audiences and uses cultural expertise, evidence and stakeholder input to influence practices, build understanding and support shared objectives.