Cultural Awareness in the Health Care Field

 Hugo Castellanos Sr.

How important is to be cultural competent in the Healthcare field?   How health & Illness is interpreted by culture?  And other key factor that can influence the well being of a patient or interfere with the treatment as the use of folk medicine, how religion influence it? All of these factors will impact the assessment and treatment for the patient, every Medical Interpreter must be aware of all these factors to help and educate the healthcare providers. 

Hugo Castellanos is currently the supervisor of Women and Infant’s Specialty Health (WISH) Language Assistant / Patient Relation Representative Department at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. With over 17 years of experience as Medical Interpreter/ Patient Representative in the health care industry, where he coordinates and maintains a schedule for Medical Interpreter to provide coverage 24/7.

WISH division is the busiest one in the hospital with annual deliveries of 15,000 babies a year, of which 80% to 85% of patient requires the service of the Language Assistant. 

Handout - Cultural Awareness in the Health Care Field

The Medical Interpreter as a Practice Profession Specialist

Rachel St. John, MD, NCC, NIC-A

Medical interpreting is a challenging and highly specialized profession, with its own unique demands and risks.  This presentation will review the role of the medical interpreter as a specialist, and will provide alternatives to the traditional "technician" model of the interpreter as the invisible language moderator.  The concept of frontloading information will be discussed, and will be explored in several case-scenarios.  Additionally, strategies for how interpreters can maximize their own health protection in the medical environment will be addressed.

Rachel St. John is a board-certified pediatrician, and an RID-certified sign language interpreter.  In the past she served as the Director of the Kids Clinic for the Deaf at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC.  She received her psychology BS at George Mason University.  She completed her MD at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and then attended Georgetown for her residency in pediatrics.  She also holds a counseling MA from Gallaudet University.   She is the cofounder of MedTerp, which provides educational workshops for medical interpreter professional development, and is a freelance medical interpreter in the DFW area.

Challenges and Complexities of Mental Health Interpreting

Anita Coelho Diabate

Mental Health Interpreting is a highly complex and specialized component of the interpreting profession which requires a thorough knowledge of interpreting.  Select skills are fundamental in the delivery of the best possible mental health care and treatment for patients requiring an interpreter in their treatment.

This workshop will outline the particular challenges Mental Health interpreters face. Case studies will illustrate the complexities and the safeguards that should be taken for Mental Health interpreters to ensure best outcomes. We will explore the challenges, available training, current required curriculum and newest developments in the field of Mental Health interpreting.

Anita Coelho Diabate is a Portuguese Medical and Mental Health interpreter with the Cambridge Health Alliance. In her role at the Cambridge Health Alliance, she interprets within their internal Call Center fielding interpreter assisted calls and on their hospital units.

As Vice President of the International Medical Interpreters Association, her responsibilities include developing innovative ways to promote Medical Interpretation internationally, incorporating “best practice” orientation and both Provider and Interpreter feedback, into new programs for furthering professional Interpreter/Provider relations.

Handout - Challenges and Complexities of Mental Health Interpreting

Cultural Competency in Health Care: "Transforming Barriers into Assets"

Dijana Rizvanovic

Participants of this presentation will achieve higher level of consciousness of cultural issues and how they impact healthcare.They will receive information on definitions of of culture, components of culture, stages of cultural competency, stereotypes, barriers to communication and personal communication styles.

The presentation will assure attendees skills for developing effective cross cultural communication and cultural sensitivity and provide them with future focus on creating individual action plans for continual self-improvement related to the benefits that can result from working with culturally diverse populations.

Dijana Rizvanovic serves as the Program Manager for Spring Institute’s Interpreter Network of Colorado (INoC). She is responsible for teaching the “Bridging the Gap” program in Colorado, as well as conducting provider trainings on how to communicate effectively through a professional interpreter.

Ms. Rizvanovic also serves as a cross-cultural trainer for the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning. Her expertise with equal language access matters and possession of the skills necessary for appropriately utilizing interpreters are particularly useful in cultural competency trainings. 

She has 15 years of experience working as an interpreter, translator, trainer, and presenter.

Handout - Cultural Competency in Health Care 

Professionalism: WE Make The Difference!!!

Amanda M. David

As interpreters, we are responsible for the future of our profession, as well as the perception of our own field by the world at large; this idea is the premise of this workshop.  The session will address the concept of professionalism and the various defining aspects that exist in our field.  Participants will engage in discussions about best practices, the way we as practitioners can manifest professional behavior, and the different methods by which these concepts can be applied to our work.

Amanda is a native of southwest Louisiana.  After graduating from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA, she began attending the Interpreter Training Program at Collin County Community College in Plano, TX.  She is certified on both State and National levels.  Amanda currently lives in Tampa, FL, where she works in the fields of community and video-based interpreting.

Anatomy of a Pediatric Heart Surgery - What's so Special About the Heart of a Child?

Graciela Zozaya

The workshop will cover the many aspects of translating for the child, family and professional needing to convey information in a surgical situation. We will progress through the many services involved in caring for a child undergoing heart surgery. The right words are most important; lack of understanding can lead to mistrust and anger toward health care providers.  Our goal will be to address challenges of conveying the medical/surgical aspects to parents who cannot see the complex and life-threatening defects in their child's heart. Information will be provided on the people, processes and procedures needed to create an excellent support system for families and patients with Limited English Proficiency.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Graciela  holds a Degree in Education from the Instituto Familiar y Social in Mexico City.

Her experience in translation and interpreting includes 6 years of freelance legal and medical interpreting and translation, 11 years as a dual-role Interpreter-Patient Advocate for the Texas Children’s Hospital Heart Center in Houston, Texas and 3 years as a Community and Medical Interpreter Trainer in Texas.

Graciela serves as Director of Professional Development for the Texas Association of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators; she is also Treasurer for the Houston Interpreters and Translators Association and has recently joined the Board of Directors of the National Council for Interpreters in Health Care.

Graciela has over 25 years of experience in healthcare interpreting and translation.  She has translated two medical books, several technical user manuals and many teaching materials for different medical disciplines as well as materials that are not healthcare related.

Handout -  Anatomy of a Pediatric Heart

Interpreter Safety: Recognizing and Responding to Risks Present in the Health Care Setting

Erin Rosales

All professionals working in the healthcare field assume a certain degree of risk to their own safety.  Interpreters are no exception.  Many interpreters, however, have little training on how to identify and respond appropriately to environmental risks. Also, many interpreters live in the same community where they work, creating unique potential for risk to the interpreter’s safety outside the professional setting.  This presentation is intended to equip healthcare interpreters with practical strategies to recognize and respond to risk factors that are inherent in the healthcare field.  These strategies are applicable for all healthcare interpreters - freelance, agency, or staff interpreters.

Erin Rosales serves as Director of Interpreter Development for Connecting Cultures, Inc. In this role she has developed an interpreter skill advancement program, a comprehensive initial training program for interpreters entering the field and a continuing education program that promotes professional growth for seasoned health care interpreters.

Since 2003 Erin has been dedicated to actively interpreting in the health care field, training interpreters, and developing interpreter trainers. She believes learning is vital to personal and professional development and has built her career around helping health care interpreters achieve professional success.

Handout - Interpreter Safety

Top 10 Reasons Why I Don't Need an Interpreter:  Exposing the Myths

Rashelle LeCaptain

Anyone working in health care has a passion for the well being of all patient populations. Health care professionals that work with limited English speaking patients are challenged by the most fundamental tools for treating a patient:  communication and context. This engaging presentation will address common oversights made by health care professionals when working with these patients.  Attendees will come away with a greater understanding of how professional interpreters can be a value added service for any health care professional or organization.

Rashelle LeCaptain has been a healthcare interpreter since 1998. She is an entrepreneur, founder and President of Connecting Cultures, Inc., working alongside health care organizations to customize language service programs specific to their unique needs. Rashelle believes in ethical business and professional service. Her dedication to the field of health care interpreting has focused on educating the health care industry about professional language services. She also creates sustainable employment for professional health care interpreters through full-time employment, providing comprehensive initial and continuing education. Rashelle's motto is a true reflection of how she works with clients: TEAM, Together Everyone Achieves More.

Handout - Top 10 Reasons Why I Don't Need an Interpreter

"False cognates": a reality of vital importance

Rosa Jara-Simmons Ed.D.,Ph.D.

English and Spanish have thousands of cognates which can easily be recognized in both languages because they look, sound, and mean the same thing in both languages.  However, “false cognates” do not mean the same in both languages despite their similarity in appearance and sound.

An accurate translation of “false cognates” is of vital importance in order to provide precise and meaningful communication without the risk for cultural and social miscommunication.  In the medical field, accuracy takes a whole new meaning since an erroneous translation could potentially lead to a misleading medical concept or diagnosis.   

Rosa Jara-Simmons has enjoyed a long professional career as a university professor in Vanderbilt University, Southern Methodist University and University of Dallas to name a few.  She has taught English as a second language, Spanish grammar and Spanish for the workplace including but not limited to Spanish for Business, Legal Spanish and Spanish for the Medical professions, and Literature of Spain and Latin America.  Since April 2010, she has been working as an interpreter and translator at Children’s Medical Center Dallas. She is a member of Alpha Mu Gamma and Sigma Delta Pi honor societies, and recently joined the ATA.

Handout - False Cognates Handout

How to interpret for research consents

Roberto Torres, MA

This presentation will teach interpreters (and translators) about the clinical research process and the different elements involved in a research consent so that interpreters will be prepared and trained in how to successfully interpret this type of encounter. Tips and techniques will be discussed. These skills will allow interpreters to feel confident they are contributing to research that will one day produce breakthroughs in treatment of disease.

Roberto Torres: Roberto is a PhD candidate in Healthcare Administration and works as a Clinical Research Coordinator in hematology/oncology at Children's Medical Center Dallas.  Additional bio information pending.

Building a Successful Interpreting Program in a Complex Hospital System

Robin A. Gordon

Implementing a thriving language access program can be very complicated. This session will look at taking a system approach to synchronizing languages access services across one hospital system. It will demonstrate different language access needs based on geographic location, size and demographics of the hospital and how to adapt to each. In addition this session will explore how to continually monitor, cultivate and improve those services as the program grows.  

Robin Gordon hold the position of Language Consultant for the Diversity & Inclusion Department at Texas Health Resources.  Robin graduated with a BA in Foreign Languages - Spanish from UNT in Denton.  She lived in Mexico for five years studying at Tec de Monterrey, working as an ESL teacher, and providing classes and translation services to Mexican businesses.  After moving back to Texas, she continued to teach and worked as a Spanish interpreter in a local clinic and has been tested and trained to become a qualified interpreter in a local interpreting program.

Handout - Building a Successful Interpreting Program

DEAFining the Culture of Hearing Loss

Amber Mitchell

Explore the different types of hearing loss and their respective cultural and linguistic preferences. Impacts of hearing loss when navigating the health care system.

Amber Mitchell has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from East Central University, Ada, Oklahoma in Counseling with emphasis in Services for the Deaf. She also has a Master of Science Degree from the Universsity of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas in  Vocational Rehabilitation Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Amber is  a Certified Interpreter & Certified Transliterator since 2002 by the National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf.

Handout #1 - Accommodations & Assistive Listening Devices

Handout #2 - Deafness & Deaf Culture

Handout #3 - Hearing Loss

Protect the Health of Your Editors: Healthy Tips to Produce Flawless Translations

Rosario (Charo) Welle & Rosa Jara-Simmons Ed.D.,Ph.D.

Owing to an increasingly diverse Spanish-speaking population that makes up an equally diverse community of patients and families of Hispanic origins, translators are faced with the challenge of finding neutral Spanish equivalents to English expressions. Although some cities in the U.S. have larger concentrations of people from a particular Spanish-speaking country, actually Spanish-Speaking patients and families in major hospitals are from many Latin American countries and Spain. How can healthcare translators overcome terminology challenges and convey with accuracy the cultural information in the original text while maintaining neutrality? This dynamic presentation will offer practical translation tips to sort common obstacles by choosing adequate methods to minimize translation errors and editors’ pet peeves.

Rosario (Charo) Welle is a freelance translator, editor, proofreader and community interpreter. For the past ten years, her working experience has been mainly in the area of education and communications and, more recently, healthcare. In 2008, she joined the Language Access Service Department of Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. Her role includes the translation, editing and proofreading of healthcare documents which are primarily used for patient education. Charo has earned a Certificate in Translation Studies from New York University Online Certificate Programs, and she is the current Assistant Administrator of Spanish Language Division of the American Translator Association.

Rosa Jara-Simmons has enjoyed a long professional career as a university professor in Vanderbilt University, Southern Methodist University and University of Dallas to name a few.  She has taught English as a second language, Spanish grammar and Spanish for the workplace including but not limited to Spanish for Business, Legal Spanish and Spanish for the Medical professions, and Literature of Spain and Latin America.  Since April 2010, she has been working as an interpreter and translator at Children’s Medical Center Dallas. She is a member of Alpha Mu Gamma and Sigma Delta Pi honor societies, and recently joined the ATA.

Handout #1 - Protect the Health of Your Editors 

How may I help you?

Erin Rosales & Rashelle LeCaptain

There are many different skills that an interpreter uses to facilitate communication effectively.  Customer service is one skill that interpreters should incorporate into their practice not only as a way to demonstrate professionalism, but also to drive support for interpreter services from those most directly impacted by the service.  In this interactive session attendees will gain practical customer service skills to apply on-the-job in a variety of interpreted encounters.  Attendees will also receive resources to continue developing customer service strategies and tailor their efforts to their unique style and needs.

Rashelle LeCaptain has been a healthcare interpreter since 1998. She is an entrepreneur, founder and President of Connecting Cultures, Inc., working alongside healthcare organizations to customize language service programs specific to their unique needs. Rashelle believes in ethical business and professional service. Her dedication to the field of healthcare interpreting has focused on educating the healthcare industry about professional language services. She also creates sustainable employment for professional healthcare interpreters through full-time employment, providing comprehensive initial and continuing education. Rashelle's motto is a true reflection of how she works with clients: TEAM, Together Everyone Achieves More.

Erin Rosales serves as Director of Interpreter Development for Connecting Cultures, Inc. In this role she has developed an interpreter skill advancement program, a comprehensive initial training program for interpreters entering the field and a continuing education program that promotes professional growth for seasoned health care interpreters.

Since 2003 Erin has been dedicated to actively interpreting in the health care field, training interpreters, and developing interpreter trainers. She believes learning is vital to personal and professional development and has built her career around helping health care interpreters achieve professional success.

Handout - How May I Help You?

Data: Your Best Friend and Ally

Cynthia E. Roat, MPH

Quality language service programs cannot be established and grow without adequate and accurate data. This workshop will introduce participants to the type of data that language access coordinators should be routinely collecting, to the methods for collecting it, and to techniques for using the data to build their programs. Real life scenarios will be used to highlight challenges in data collection.

Cindy Roat is a national consultant on language access in health care and currently chairs the Standards, Training and Certification Committee of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care.

Video Remote Interpreting (VRI)

Kristen Willbur

Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) is a cutting edge innovation and a controversial subject in our interpreting/translating world today.  Many providers are contracting with agencies to fill their needs through VRI. What is it? Is it ethical? How does it work? Is it successful? What’s in it for me as the provider, interpreter or patient?

Coming from a non-native background in sign language I made my way through the military and then college to be intrigued by American Sign Language. I am now a nationally certified American Sign Language interpreter working in a variety of settings to include VRI, VRS, Legal, Medical, Theater, Mental Health, etc. I am finishing my Masters degree in Interpreting with the hopes to use my skills to assist in advancing our profession and the students of our future.

CCHI Healthcare Interpreter Certification – for interpreters and by interpreters

Alejandro Maldonado, CHI™, CCP

This presentation will discuss how the CCHI certification program is designed to meet the needs of our fast-growing profession.  The workshop will address:  application procedure, examination specifications, credential/certification award process, and certification maintenance policy.  Special attention will be given to the process for selecting next language(s) for developing the Certified Healthcare Interpreter™ (CHI™) examination.  There will be a forum for questions and answers.

Alejandro Maldonado serves on different committees related to language access to reduce disparities to people with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) while they access information and services in healthcare and social services in the state of Minnesota.  He is currently the Limited English Proficiency Coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Human Services. At the national level, Alejandro is one of the commissioners for the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI).  Part of his professional dedication has been devoted to work with government agencies, nonprofits, and for-profit organizations to move Minnesota towards the professionalization of the interpreting industry. As a member of the executive committee, Alejandro helped to produce a report for the state legislature on access and interpreting services in the medical field in 2008. He served as the vice chair of the Interpreting Stakeholder Group (ISG) and currently is At Large Member of the Board of Directors of ISG; past vice chair of the Latino Advisory Committee, which provides advice to the Minneapolis Mayor's Office and City Council; and has been a well recognized and respected professional healthcare interpreter and translator by his colleagues in the medical field for almost two decades. Alejandro is a nationally recognized speaker on diversity, compliance with federal language access requirements, healthcare interpreter certification, and leadership. In addition to the study of linguistics, interpreting, and management, Alejandro founded Avante Enterprises; he is a Certified Coach Practitioner (CCP) and a Certified Healthcare Interpreter (CHI™). As an FAA licensed commercial pilot Alejandro flies charitable missions for Angel Flight Central.