Francophone Health

Francophone Health provides leadership and coordination to support the delivery of provincial bilingual health services. This work aligns with the Multi-Year French Language Services Strategic Plan, the Provincial Clinical Plan, and other legislation, regulations, and policies related to French Language Services (FLS).

In this role, Francophone Health works closely with Manitoba’s designated bilingual health service delivery organizations (SDOs), their Francophone Health teams, and other key partners to develop standards, strengthen service pathways, and integrate FLS into health system planning.

Together, our goal is to improve health equity, increase access to care, and ensure high-quality, sustainable healthcare services for Manitoba’s French-speaking population.

Why it Matters

Language plays a critical role in patient safety and quality of care. The ability for patients and healthcare professionals to understand one another is essential to building trust and ensuring effective care.

Clear communication helps patients understand their health conditions, treatment options, and the care they are receiving, which is fundamental to informed consent.

Research shows that patients facing language barriers are more likely to experience negative health outcomes, including:

• medication errors
• unnecessary laboratory or diagnostic tests
• higher likelihood of intubation
• difficulty following medical instructions

Providing healthcare services in a patient’s preferred language helps reduce these risks and improves overall care.

Francophone Health Network

As part of its governance structure, Francophone Health at Shared Health established the Provincial Francophone Health Coordinator Network (PFHCN).

This network brings together Francophone Health coordinators from across Manitoba’s designated bilingual health organizations to support collaboration and help standardize operations, projects, and initiatives related to French Language Services across the provincial health system. The permanent members of the network are:

• Interlake-Eastern Health Authority
• Hôpital St-Boniface Hospital
• Prairie Mountain Health
• Shared Health-Soins communs
• Southern Health-Santé Sud
• CancerCare Manitoba
• Winnipeg Regional Health Authorities

Overview of Support Services

French-language support services aim to equip designated bilingual and Francophone healthcare organizations, as well as their staff, with the knowledge, tools, and resources needed to provide meaningful health services in both official languages (French and English).

These provincial support services are primarily funded through the Canada–Manitoba Agreement on French Language Services, which aims to enhance access to high-quality services in French across Manitoba and support the vitality of the province’s French-speaking communities.

French-language support services are provided free-of-charge to staff of the following organizations:

The French-language support services include:

Active Offer Training

The concept of Active Offer is the set of measures taken by designated bilingual health authorities and service delivery organizations to ensure that French Language Services are available and accessible, and publicized as such, and that the quality of these services is comparable to that of services offered in English.

To support the implementation of Active Offer, Francophone Health offers a broad variety of self-directed and instructor-led training opportunities to staff. For more information, please contact [email protected]

French-Language Training

French-language proficiency training is offered to staff looking to learn or improve their French skills for work-related purposes. Francophone Health offers a wide-range of training, including instructor-led French-language courses, self-directed online French-language training, and professional development. For more information, please contact [email protected]

French-Language Assessments

French-language skills assessments are required for applicants applying to designated bilingual positions or positions with a preference for French-language proficiency. For more information, please consult our French-Language Proficiency Assessments webpage.

Bonjour/Hello Physical Identifiers

As a visual cue, Bonjour/Hello physical identifiers are available free of charge to staff wanting to indicate they can speak English and French.

The following items are available on request:

• Lanyard
• Badge-pull
• Magnetic badge
• Badge with pin

For more information, please contact [email protected]

Translations Services

English-to-French and French-to-English translation are provided to ensure all designated bilingual and Francophone healthcare service delivery organizations are proactively providing all forms of written and digital material in both official languages. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Our Team

Francophone Health is available Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. Contact us by email at [email protected].

Joel Lafond
Provincial Lead, Francophone Health – Responsable provincial, Santé des francophones
[email protected]

Jessica Bazin
Administrative Assistant, Francophone Health – Assistante administrative, Santé des francophones
[email protected]

Zakia Belatik
Bilingual Translation and Training Coordinator, Francophone Health– Coordinatrice de traduction et formation bilingue, Santé des francophones
[email protected]

Alex Coates
Project Manager, Francophone Health – Gestionnaire de projet, Santé des francophones
[email protected]

Obo Henshaw
Program Specialist, Francophone Health – Spécialiste du programme, Santé des francophones
[email protected]

Our Partners

• Santé en français (Manitoba)
• Francophone Affairs Secretariat