Encounters - Issue 1, Vol. 3 2013 - page 12

12
Texas Association of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators
The National Council on Interpreting in Health
Care (NCIHC) held its 7
th
Annual Meeting in
Seattle, Washington on June 7
th
and 8
th
, 2013.
The NCIHC holds business meetings to update
the members on the work realized during the
previous year from the Board of Directors and the
various committees and from national leaders in
the healthcare interpreting field. As an example of
the caliber of speakers, Ignatius Bau, one of most
highly-regarded thinkers in the field, volunteered
to serve as master of ceremonies.
This year’s meeting addressed the following topics:
The state of healthcare interpreting inWashington
State
, presented by Professor Gillian Dutton
of Seattle University School of law. She spoke
about developments originating with a civil rights
complaint against a state agency, to a consent
decree, to the recent unionization of interpreters
in Washington State.
After Prof. Dutton’s presentation, representatives
from each state presented a short update.
Minnesota
reported on upcoming legislation
to create a registry of qualified interpreters. A
Wisconsin
representative spoke about the
requirement for certification to be included in
the state registry of interpreters. From
Arizona
we heard of the many challenges of promoting
language access and asked NCIHC to prepare a
position paper on how to persuade people of the
need for language access. From
Massachusetts
,
someone reported on a state white paper to
require certified interpreters for all encounters.
The
Delaware
rep recounted on the challenges
of serving a small population that swells to ten
times its usual size during summer months. A
California
participant reported that, while some
areas of the state may be ahead of the language
access curve, other areas are far behind. The test
for Medical Interpreter Certification for Worker’s
Compensation hearings has not been offered
since 2008. The Pan Ethnic Health coalition is
promoting a statute to include the administrative
rules for language access for Medicaid.
From
New Hampshire
, which has a large deaf
population, reported that the Department of
Justice has stepped in to put services in place
for all languages. The
Oregon
representative
reported on a new interpreter program for
foreign languages and ASL at Western Oregon
University (online and onsite). I, representing
Texas
, spoke on the recommendations of the
Texas Advisory Committee on Qualifications for
Healthcare Translators and Interpreters.
NCIHC Committees
presented their reports
next. The
Outreach Committee
reported on
press releases, social media, and the idea of
a publications clearinghouse. The
Policy and
Research Committee
reported on a language
barriers research paper by Dr. Francesca Ghany,
language access in new health exchanges, and
a toolkit to help make the case for language
access. She also mentioned the possibility of
a webinar about healthcare navigators. The
Website Committee
discussed the additions to
the website including the “Home for Trainers”
and Mentoring Committee work. The
Standards
and Training Committee
reported activities of
each of its workgroups: Webinars, Mentoring,
Languages of Limited Diffusion; and Event
Planning Committee.
Then it was off to an entertaining
history
of
NCIHC presented by its founders: Robert Putsch,
M.D., Cynthia Roat, and Ira SenGupta. Bringing
us into the
present
, we heard about the education
of interpreters from Enrica Ardemagni of NCIHC;
about Title VI enforcement from Lenny Sanchez
of the US Office for Civil Rights; and about the
sections of the Affordable Care Act that address
language access from Mara Youdelman of the
National Health Law Program. The
future
issues
7
th
Annual NCIHC
Membership Meeting
By ESTHER DIAZ, CHAIR ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON QUALIFICATIONS FOR HEALTHCARE TRANSLATORS AND INTERPRETERS
1...,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 13,14
Powered by FlippingBook