The Gaelic language and medical provision in the 19th-century Scottish Highlands (360G-Wellcome-200805_Z_16_Z)

This proposal examines communication between monoglot Gaelic-speakers and members of the medical profession (not all of whom were Gaelic-speakers) in the 19th-century Scottish Highlands, considering the ways in which Gaelic was, and was not, accommodated in the emerging health care system and how this impacted upon patient care. This will involve carrying out work in Highland Archive, Inverness, focusing on the records of the Inverness District Asylum, the Northern Infirmary and Inverness Parochial Board. The aim is to build on work already undertaken on contemporary published reports, as well as preliminary archival work, and to establish a fine-grained picture of language usage between patients and medical staff and thereby to: identify the provision made for Gaelic-speaking patients by those tasked with overseeing the administration of health care provision in 19th-century Inverness and its environs establish Gaelic-speaking staff : patient ratios by drawing on both patient & staff records and the Censuses of 1881 and 1891 identify the extent to which the language of communication was perceived as being problematic by staff or patients identify occasions when communications between patients and medical staff was impeded or affected by a language barrier and the impact of this on patient care