PROPOSAL FOR A CODE OF ETHICS FOR INTERCULTURAL MEDIATORS IN HEALTHCARE

As society advances towards a globalised world, interculturality increases as a result of the progressive rise in immigration, which means healthcare resources must be adapted to cater for this demographic diversity. These population changes represent a new challenge for healthcare professionals, who face the new realities of an increasingly culturally diverse healthcare sector on a daily basis. Within the context of this new multicultural environment, intercultural mediation has become a key resource, which in turn presents certain issues of a particularly complex nature, and these become accentuated when examining intercultural mediation in healthcare. Intercultural mediation should be viewed as a profession, and by extension, the intercultural mediator should be considered a professional, regardless of the context and environment where his or her job is performed. In Spain, numerous initiatives have been undertaken in order to establish a code of ethics for intercultural mediators. However, these are ethical standards that aim to define a code of general principles for mediation, regardless of the sphere of the mediation. Therefore, it is vitally important that intercultural mediators in healthcare have a set of values of ethical standards that regulate their actions and professional activity in this field. We are hereby putting forward a code of ethics for professionals in Intercultural Mediation in healthcare, with the aim of highlighting the professional importance and responsibility of this role in relation to society in the specific context of intervention.