Provincial Language Services

Provincial Language Services (PLS) works to improve language and communication access to health information and health care services for patients and clients across British Columbia.


PLS supports organizations that serve people from diverse language and cultural backgrounds, including:
  • Immigrants and refugees
  • Francophones and other official language minority communities
  • Deaf, Deaf-blind and Hard of Hearing people 
We help identify and remove language and communication barriers so patients can access health care more easily. 

Services we offer

Provincial Language Services provides high-quality language access services to:

  • Health authorities
  • Family physicians and primary care providers
  • Specialist offices
  • Allied health professionals.

Our services include:

Benefits of our services

We use an equity-focused approach to help make communication between patients and health care providers accessible.

Our services support equitable access to health care for:

  • People who speak immigrant and refugee languages
  • Francophone patients
  • Deaf, Deaf-blind and hard of hearing patients

Services include:

  • ​Interpreting (spoken language communication)
  • Translation (written language communication)
  • Community outreach
  • Health navigation services
  • Knowledge translation and promotion

These services help health care providers delive safe, accessible and equitable care to patients with diverse language and cultural needs.

About us

Provincial Language Services is committed to improving language access for people receiving health care throughout BC.

We work to strengthen connections and support equitable access to health services for immigrant and refugee language speakers, Francophone patients, and members of the Deaf, Deaf-blind and hard of hearing community. We regularly engage with community members to better understand their needs.

 

Provincial Language Services grew out of the Office for Cross-cultural Care and Diversity, which provided culturally and linguistically appropriate services at BC Children’s Hospital, Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children and BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre.

In 2003, the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) established Provincial Language Services so PHSA programs and other BC health care organizations could access specialized language services.

PLS was originally created to support immigrant and refugee language speakers. Since then, its services have expanded to include Francophone patients and members of the Deaf, Deaf-blind and hard of hearing community.

 

‎In 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Eldridge v. British Columbia that Deaf, Deaf-blind and hard of hearing patients must have equitable communication access when receiving health care services in BC.


The Court recognized a constitutional right to effective communication in health care settings. As a result, sign language interpreting services are available at no cost to the patients when all of the following conditions apply:

In 2014, PHSA expanded the program to include any health care service provided directly by a BC health authority.

In 2021, PHSA expanded services again to include Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART).

Our team

Our team includes equity-focused leaders, customer service specialists, interpreters and translators with experience in:
  • Project management
  • Linguistics
  • Business administration
  • Communications
  • Related fields
Provincial Language Services welcomes qualified language professionals to join our team.

Privacy

We collect personal information under section 26(c) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) to provide interpreting services.

We may collect:
  • Name
  • Address
  • Telephone number
  • Purpose of visit
If you have questions about how we collect or use your information, please contact Provincial Language Services using the contact information provided on this page.
Quality assurance
Quality assurance is built into all aspects of our service delivery. Our processes support continuous improvement across our services and organization.

Provincial Language Services follows strict policies and procedures for professional conduct. We document, investigate and track compliments, complaints and incidents involving our staff, contractors, interpreters, intervenors, captioners, translators and service providers.

Make a compliment or complaint

 

If you are a patient or a patient's family member and would like to share a compliment or complaint about an interpreter, intervenor, captioner or translator, contact the PHSA Patient Care Quality Office.

If your concern relates to health care services provided to you or your loved one, contact your health authority's Patient Care Quality Office.

If you're not sure which health authority services your community​, find your health authority by community name.

 
To report language-access-related adverse events, near misses or safety hazards, use the Patient Safety and Learning System.

To share a compliment or submit a complaint about Provincial Language Services, contact the Quality Assurance team.


CameraVideo call:  Email Provincial Language Services to schedule a video call

FaxFax: 604-297-9304

PhonePhone:  604-297-8400

mailMail:
Provincial Language Services Quality Assurance
1795 Willingdon Avenue
Burnaby, BC
V5V 6E3

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