Resources and References
Hispanic/Latino Culture
Browner, C.H., & Preloran, H.M. (1999). Male partners' role in Latinas' amniocentesis decisions.
Journal of Genetic Counseling, 8(2),
85-107.
Eichmeyer, J.N., Northrup, H., Assel, M.A., Goka, T.J., Johnston, D.A., & Williams, A.T. (2005). An assessment of risk understanding in Hispanic genetic counseling patients. Journal of Genetic Counseling, 14(4), 319-328.
Flores, G., Abreu, M., Schwartz, I., & Hill, M. (2000). The importance of language and culture in pediatric care: Case studies from the Latino community. Journal of Pediatrics, 137, 842-8.
Hunt, Linda M. and de Voogd, Katherine B. “Clinical Myths of the Cultural ‘Other’: Implications for Latino Patient Care.” Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 80 (10). October 2005. 918-924.
Mittman, I., Cromblehome, W.R., Green, J.R., & Golbus, M.S. (1998). Reproductive genetic counseling to Asian-Pacific and Latin American immigrants. Journal of Genetic Counseling, 7(1), 49-70.
Pew Hispanic Center. “Hispanics and Health Care in the U.S.: Access, Information and Knowledge.” 2008. http://pewhispanic.org/
Ricker, C., et al. (2006). If we build it . . . will they come? – Establishing a cancer genetics services clinic for an underserved predominantly Latina cohort. Journal of Genetic Counseling, 15(6), 505-514.
Saucier, J.B., Johnston, D., Wicklund, C.A., Robbins-Furman, P., Hecht, J.T., & Monga, M. (2005). Racial-ethnic differences in genetic amniocentesis uptake. Journal of Genetic Counseling, 14(3), 189-195.
Simpson, E., Gawron, T., Mull, D., & Walker, A.P. (1994). A Spanish-language prenatal family health evaluation questionnaire: Construction and pilot implementation. Journal of Genetic Counseling, 3(1), 39-62.
Sussner, K.M., Thompson, H.S., Valdimarsdottir, H.B., Redd, W.H., & Jandorf, L. (2008). Acculturation and familiarity with, attitudes towards and beliefs about genetic testing for cancer risk within latinas in East Harlem, New York City. Journal of Genetic Counseling, 18(1), 60-71.
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The Office of Minority Health. Hispanic /Latino Profile. http://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=3&lvlid=64
Zambran, R.E. & Logie, L.A. (2009). Changing the Face of America: U.S Latino Families Fact Sheet, 09/29/2009. The Council on Contemporary Families, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL.
Foreign Language Educational Materials
http://www.healthfinder.gov/espanol/
Provides general information on health topics in Spanish; difficult to navigate without some knowledge of the language. Also available in an
English version.
https://ethnomed.org/patient-education
Provides general health patient education resources in multiple target languages, including women’s health topics.
http://www.genome.gov
The “Educational Resources” section provides a glossary of genetic terms in Spanish. Some knowledge of the Spanish language is required to navigate
the site.
Office of Minority Health: https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/
Sampson, A. (2006). Language services resource guide for healthcare providers. Prepared for The National Health Law Program and The National Council on Interpreting in Health Care. Available online at www.healthlaw.org This site has excellent online resources, organized by topic like women’s health, cancer, etc. The guide also provides a summary of national and all state laws relating to LEP services in health care.
Interpreter and Translator Services
Role of the Interpreter
Beltran Avery, M.-P. (2001). The role of the health care interpreter: An evolving dialogue. National Council on Interpreting in Health Care Working Papers Series. Available online at
www.ncihc.org
This article explains, in detail, the four roles of interpreters summarized above.
Dysart-Gale, D. (2007). Clinicians and medical interpreters: Negotiating culturally
appropriate care for patient with limited English ability. Fam. Community Health, 30(3), 237-246.
(This article provides an overview of the debate in the interpreter community over the scope of the role of interpreter).
National Center for Cultural Competence (2004).
Bridging the cultural divide in health care settings: The
essential role of cultural broker programs.
(This document summarizes the role of a cultural broker and provides multiple examples of the effectiveness of cultural broker programs.
Also provides practice information on how to begin a cultural broker program).
National Council on Interpreting in Health Care. (2004). A national code of ethics for interpreters in health care. National Council on Interpreting in Health Care Working Papers Series. Available online at www.ncihc.org. This document includes the Code of Ethics and commentary on each principle set forth in the Code, providing information on the basic expectations a provider can have when working with an interpreter.
Assessment Tools for Internal Interpreter Services
California Academy of Family Physicians Foundation (2007). Addressing language and culture: A practice assessment for health care professionals. An excellent resource that provides a simple assessment that would help the genetic counselor become more familiar with the practices of her organization in terms of caring for LEP patients. Also provides information on testing your language skills to see if you could provide bilingual care.
National Council on Interpreting in Health Care. (2002). Linguistically appropriate access and services: An evaluation and review for healthcare organizations. National Council on Interpreting in Health Care Working Papers Series. Available online at www.ncihc.org. This guide provides a lengthy checklist to guide the assessment of internal interpreter services in order to ensure that institutions are meeting the needs of their LEP patients.
Practical Guidelines and General Information
Downing, B., & Roat, C.E. (2002). Models for the provision of language access in health care settings. Available online at www.ncihc.org. This article summarizes the multiple models of interpreting services available, including the benefits and limitations of bilingual provider models, the bilingual patient model, ad-hoc interpreter models and dedicated interpreter models. This includes models not discussed in this case, including telephone or other non-face to face interpreting models.
Industry Collaboration Effort of Health Plans (2009). Better communication for better care: Provider tools for diverse populations. Available online at
http://www.iceforhealth.org/library/documents/ICE_booklet.pdf
A compilation of practical resources including resources to assist communication with a diverse patient population base, resources to communicate across language barriers, resources to increase awareness of cultural background and reference resources including summaries of LEP laws and online resources.
National Council on Interpreting in Health Care. (2003). Guide to interpreter positioning in health care settings. National Council on Interpreting in Health Care Working Papers Series. Available online at www.ncihc.org. Analyzes the benefits and limitations of multiple options for physical positioning of the interpreter during the medical appointment.
National Council on Interpreting in Health Care. (2005). National standards of practice for interpreters in health care. Available online at www.ncihc.org. These standards of practice are based on the ethical principles put forth in the Code of Ethics published by this same organization. These standards are presented as general objectives and further explained with examples.
National Council on Interpreting in Health Care. (2009). Sight translation and written translation: Guidelines for healthcare interpreters. National Council on Interpreting in Health Care Working Papers Series. Available online at www.ncihc.org. These guidelines are for interpreters or supervisors that work with interpreting written documents in real-time, providing specific information on which documents should be on-hand in the target language and what to do with documents that have not been previously translated.
http://www.lep.gov/interp_translation/trans_interpret.html
Provides links to the essential information about interpreting and translating, as well as links to local interpreter agencies.
http://www.languageline.com
This telephone interpreter service offers translators in over 170 languages 24 hours a day.
Penn, C.L. (2007). Breaking down barriers: Language is the issue. Journal of the Arkansas Medical Society, 104(6): 128-131. Provides and overview of medical interpreting and some basic internet resources on the subject.
Txabarriaga, R. (2009). International Medical Interpreters Association Guide on Medical Translation. Available online at www.imiaweb.org. Organized in an FAQ format, this guide provides a crash course on the practice information one needs to know about translating medical and patient information.
Legal Updates Regarding Language Access
The National Health Law Program offers a library of resources that offer detailed updates regarding language access in federal and state settings.
