INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Medical interpreter support is expanding across Indiana as part of Ascension St. Vincent-Indianapolis hospital’s Bridging the Gap medical translation services.
Medical interpreting support is free, and can be requested through physicians’ offices. While Ascension St. Vincent Hospital-Indianapolis is the home base, the program is expanding to the 22 sites around the state.
Advocates say, as Indiana’s diversity grows, keeping the immigrant communities healthy is important.
Hospital representatives say when there are language barriers some people won’t go to the doctor until it’s an emergency and, considering how much immigrant communities add to the culture of the state, continued work is needed to improve equity in health care.
Ascensions St. Vincent is operating on principles of ABIDE: appreciation, belongingness, inclusivity, diversity and equity. It’s a key component of what medical interpreters learn.
“It’s very hard they sometimes don’t even speak up until they end up in the emergency room because they don’t speak the language,” said Adriana Contreras, the director for language and translation services.
She’s an interpreter and facilitates the Bridging the Gap course. It’s a 40-hour class that teaches participants how to be patients’ voices, break cultural barriers, advocate, and clarify. “So when somebody is saying ‘yes’ and the stare is blank, as an interpreter, a good interpreter, you’re going to clarify it. You’re going to pause and tell the provider, ‘I think they’re not getting it. Can I go back and ask and reiterate?'”
Spanish is the most-frequent language needing interpreters, but support covers a broad spectrum of languages.
Interpreter Jarret Roloff said, “I just think about how much Latin Americans have contributed to our culture, and to our society, just being so valuable.”
Roloff was a high school Spanish teacher before becoming a medical interpreter five years ago. Roloff said being able to communicate in two or more languages doesn’t necessarily mean people have the skills to adequately interpret medical topics.
“I want to be the most accurate and precise, so I’ll end up using the dictionary and continue with the interpretation and then later I’ll add it to a study list.”
Roloff said he’s maintained a passion for this work largely due to the people he gets to help.
No comments:
Post a Comment