Speaker 1: Imagine that you are very sick, but in a foreign country, and you don't speak the language. Let me tell you a story about a lady that I would call Vanessa, who was expecting her third child. She called me on Saturday night, a long time ago. As soon as I answered the call, I heard anguish in her voice. She was at the ER with her husband because she started feeling unwell with a strong stomach pain and severe headache. But the reason why she was calling me was she and her husband were struggling to understand the gynecologist. Actually, they didn't speak English very well. I asked her if I can speak with her husband. When her husband was in the line, he told me the same. They were struggling, they were confused about what the gynecologist kept saying, that his wife has help. So I asked him if she's getting help, or if she has help. I'm confused, too. So I asked him, can you put somebody in the line, please? So he put the nurse. And the nurse told me exactly the same. His wife has help. So I was like, help? Okay, this is something else. Can you please spell it out to me? And she spelled H-E-L-L-P. I immediately started searching online. And when I saw the search result, I just grabbed my keys and flew to the hospital. Right away. So when I arrived to the hospital and went to see Vanessa, well, she was at the hospital bed and she seems pretty scared. I would be the same, too. So I approached to her bed and she immediately grabbed my hand and she told me in Spanish, ¿Qué me está pasando, Pamela? No me quiero morir. Mis hijos, por favor. Mis hijos. What she told me was, what's going on with me, Pam? I don't want to die. My children. Please, my children. Vanessa had a serious syndrome called HELP, H-E-L-L-P. It is a rare high blood pressure condition that happened during pregnancy. That was pretty scary. I was able to interpret for she and her husband. She was concerned but better after the explanation. Soon later she was transported to Indianapolis and I was able to provide all the information where she was going to be transported, where she's going to be, to her husband so he can be by her side. Without accurate communication, what would be happen? Maybe she wouldn't be taken to Indianapolis on time and have a serious reaction or a serious complication. But one thing that I'm really glad is that she thought about me that night, that she called me, and she called me even after hours, on weekend. I'm glad that she did that. I'm telling you this story not only because I have very special connections with Vanessa and her family. Her baby at the time, her son, is one of my students at one of my schools. Isn't that great? But also, it was a turning point for me to make a decision that I have to become a certified medical interpreter. But let me take you to my journey, how I come up with this decision. A couple years before Vanessa's incident, I was hired by a non-profit to be their family social service coordinator. My job was to provide all kind of possible support to Latino participants in this area and help them with interpretation, translations, and consultations of all kinds. When I was doing my job, I started noticing that the majority of my duties were medical interpretations. Eventually, I was fully exposed to interpretations of all kinds at different facilities and different doctors. That made me realize that when these patients were referred by the primary care clinic to see a specialist or go to the hospital for the treatment, they require help. So there was a lack of language services and assistance when this type of referrals occurred. So that made me think that many Latino patients didn't have the same opportunities, services, and options to access the same health care as other speaking English patients had. So with this experience, I felt that our community needed language professionals to help those who can advocate for themselves. Getting help from volunteers, family members, and even community coordinators like me wasn't good enough. So being certified was a way to cover that gap. Our community needed really language professional services. Right now, Richmond has a small but growing Latino population. It has become pretty diverse. And since 2015, 2016, we have family from different Latin American countries. The majority are from Mexico, but also we have families from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Colombia. So we're pretty diverse. But unfortunately, we're still noticing that this minority group doesn't have the equal access to medical services due to the migratory status and their language proficiency. So we need to make changes. I would like to explain to you our role as interpreters. Interpreters in general, we are a bridge. We are a bridge that connects one population that speaks a different language with another that speaks a different language and vice versa. We help to facilitate clear communication and understanding. That's actually our main role. But our role is not only that. It has many roles, but actually our main role is to be the facilitators. But depending on the situation, sometimes we have to be the consultants, the cultural brokers, sometimes the translators, and ultimately we have to be the advocates. Let me tell you another story about how all these roles came up at once. They were needed, actually, at once. Back in March 2020, probably many of us know about that, during the first wave of COVID-19, it was my first week I was quarantined at home, and I started getting phone calls from different people with symptoms asking for help. They didn't know what to do. They didn't know where to go or where to go. So I volunteered to help them. So the first step was to start making phone calls. I called the health department, but I didn't get a reply right away, and I thought it was very important to resolve the situation right away. So I called the county clinic. For my surprise, they were not a county, they were not part of the county, they were not seeing patients with COVID or with symptoms, but they advised me to call a respiratory clinic. So I called the respiratory clinic. So when I called the respiratory clinic, they told me, you have to write down a couple instructions that we need to give you. First, we need that you gather all this information from the patients, and then call us back and set up an appointment. So I did what they told me. So get all this information, gather all this information from these patients, call them back to set up the appointment. But they gave me more instructions. They told me these patients, when they arrive at the time of their appointment, they need to remain in their car, and then they will see a banner in the parking lot and they need to make a phone call. They need to stay in their car, not come up, just wait for a staff member. And that's exactly how I provide the information. So the staff member come out, and they sit them in their car and do the first check-in. When everything was, the first step was done, they will be brought inside the clinic and start the process of intake. The process of intake is simple, it's asking so many questions about the patient's symptoms, taking the blood pressure, etc. So when the process of intake is finished, then they will be ready to see the provider. So during the time I was facilitating the communication, also I was able to help with doctor notes for employers, CDC guidelines, and also information related with COVID. So to help a lot more, I was keeping a log of each patient, so in case of any follow-up, we have the information available. When patients and providers didn't need me anymore, the log was destroyed. So after this experience, becoming a medical interpreter taught me that health care is not a right, it's really a privilege. So for the greater good, we need leaders to fight for equality in all levels of society. Our health care system requires changes that involve better accessibility and affordability to medical services. To be able to achieve that means we have to consider everyone, everyone. So it means that we have to include also in our services language and cultural competency. Professionals working with immigrant minorities need more support and also inclusion in their health care facility teams. And also I think we need some sort of advocate influencers working for a better public health and also definitely for a better health care system. My dad gave me an awesome message, and this message is also for my son Connor. He told me that any leader that works in any system, especially in health care, should be working under these three qualities, compassion, integrity, and proactive attitude. I would like to dedicate this talk to my Aunt Julia Chavez, who lost her battle against COVID on January 21st, 2022. Thank you for listening to my talk.