As a health and social care professional, I would find it beneficial to have Gaelic language tuition which would help me work with service users who use Gaelic as their first language. Although there are some online resources, a tutor/teacher/lecturer lead course with interaction would enhance learning, especially if it could be geared towards some of the professional language we need to use and communicate with. This should also be available for people who would like to learn the Scots language and its dialects to better support service users. It is not comfortable for service users to work through trauma and/or other personal issues while having to be mindful to speak English. Building Gaelic and Scots literacy and proficiency among professionals would address this. Since these are 2 out of 3 of Scotland's official languages, the Scottish Government should have funding and support in place to support practitioners who are interested in this to better serve their service users. Funding could be given governing bodies such as the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) and others to provide these courses.
This content is created by the open source Your Priorities citizen engagement platform designed by the non profit Citizens Foundation