The Central Valley Chapter of CHIA presents…

Understanding the Diagnosis and Treatment of Asthma

Asthma is one of the most frequent health conditions affecting adults and children in the Central Valley.  This seminar will provide information and vocabulary needed by healthcare interpreters to effectively interpret for the asthma patient. Vocabulary handouts will be available in Hmong and Spanish.
(Refreshments will be served at this event!)

Please register on-line here 
or call 
or call Tatiana at Healthy House 
@ (209) 724-0102

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  Central Valley Chapter, in collaboration with all CHIA Chapters,  coordinated a health interpreter conference in Fresno on Saturday, September 29, 2001 at Valley Children’s Hospital, followed by a CHIA Board meeting on Sunday, September 30.  The theme of the conference was:

 Health Care Interpreting: The California Experience: 
The Emerging Healthcare Interpreter Profession  

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  Central Valley Chapter  Presentation on Pharmacology 
at Sutter Merced Medical Center, 
Tuesday, April 24, 2001.  

Forty-six healthcare interpreters attended “Pharmacology for Healthcare Interpreters”, the second seminar the Central Valley CHIA Chapter offered on April 24^th at Mercy Medical Center Merced. The presenter, Tou Vue Her, Pharm.D. Candidate designed the presentation to specifically address some the topics and questions healthcare interpreters had formulated at various Continuing Education meetings. The Continuing Education Committee also produced two vocabulary handouts in Spanish and Hmong to accompany the presentation.

The response was outstanding.  The seminar was extended half hour to accommodate questions and lively discussion about medication therapies, drug interactions, herbal remedies and other topics related to pharmacology. Mr. Her is willing to answer via e-mail any questions that were not adequately addressed during the presentation. To ask your questions e-mail Tatiana Vizcaino-Stewart at Tatiana@cell2000.net or call her at (209) 724-0102.

We will continue supporting healthcare interpreters with more of these types of programs and offering presentations entirely in Hmong and Spanish. We need your participation! If you would like to be a presenter or know someone who can present a topic relevant to healthcare interpreters call Tatiana at the above noted phone number.

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   NALEO California Policy Institute on Health

 I was given an opportunity to be a presenter for the May 17, 01 National Association of Latino Elected Officials Institute on Health. I was part of a group of presenters that had to address and propose solutions to the shortage of bilingual/bicultural healthcare providers in the Central Valley. This is a serious concern already identified at the national level. The focus of the presentations at the NALEO Institute were aimed to facilitate communication between policy makers, research experts, health providers, and health advocates. The aim of the institutes is elected officials better informed and prepared to formulate public policy.

 We noted that some healthcare organizations are trying to address shortage issues by providing language training to very busy, monolingual providers. Providers try hard to overcome language and cultural barriers and typically take short term Hmong and Spanish classes to try to communicate directly with patients. Many providers’ target language skills are still inadequate to effectively communicate with patients without the assistance of a trained interpreter. Our presentation shed light on the important role healthcare interpreters are playing assisting monolingual providers bridge cultural and linguistic gaps. We shifted the focus to training the healthcare interpreter who already has a strong linguistic and cultural foundation to start from.

 I shared my own experience of being bilingual and bicultural to address the challenges many healthcare interpreters face in maintaining their language skills. I spoke as an interpreter/trainer about the importance of training to maintain bilingual linguistic proficiency and addressed some important misconceptions about bilingual and bicultural individuals, which greatly contribute to the lack of appropriate cultural and linguistic services in healthcare organizations today. Some of these misconceptions are:

• ·         If you are bilingual, you are fluent

• ·         If you are bilingual, you are bicultural

• ·         Anyone who is bi-literate can translate

• ·         Anyone who is bilingual can effectively interpret

• ·         Interpretation is a simple task

By the end of our presentation we could offer a tentative solution to the shortage issue. Support and train your bilingual/bicultural workforce. Provide them with opportunities to practice their languages of service.

I wished we had more time to discuss these complex issues, but in them, I believe lies the answer. The presentation was well received and it will be soon posted on NALEO’s website. We will keep you informed on the date and the website address.

Central Valley Continuing Education Session Held for Spanish Speaking Healthcare Interpreters

March 2, 2001

Emma Dominguez, healthcare interpreter and case manager from Merced County Mental Health, offered a wonderful 90-minute presentation and discussion in Spanish about the popular wisdom and philosophy contained in Spanish  “proverbios” or “réfranes”. Emma compiled seventy popular Spanish proverbs and discussed the meaning of each.  Participants engaged in animated discussion and shared their own dichos  (sayings) and compared the language of proverbs from different regions of Mexico and Latin America.  Some of the proverbs shared were common and easy to decipher while others were rare (not used frequently by Spanish speakers in this country) and impossible to decipher without the presenter’s guidance.  Some of the group’s favorites were: “En el país de los ciegos el que tiene un ojo es rey” and “Donde hubo fuego cenizas quedan”.

 Participants identified some English proverbs that matched their Spanish counterparts. Some of the proverbs discussed had an English equivalent and many others did not. This presentation was an excellent intellectual exercise!

Emma Dominguez was born and educated in Nicaragua where she received a Master’s Degree in Social Work. She speaks Spanish in a beautiful and skillful way. We appreciate her participation and support of our Continuing Education meetings where we hope to continue offering opportunities to practice and develop our Spanish language skills. The Continuing Education committee had such a good time with this presentation that we will be getting back together for more. We are also planning to form a reading group. We encourage you to join us to share your knowledge and sharpen your Spanish language skills. 

For more information call Tatiana at 724-0102. To receive information about the Hmong Speaking meetings ask for Palee Moua.

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