CAPITAL REGION Language barrier issue in health care BY SARA FOSS Gazette Reporter
Navigating the health care system can be challenging. But it’s even more challenging for people who speak English as a second language. For immigrants and minorities, “language is definitely an issue upstate,” said Janine Jerkowski, an assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University at Albany. “Cultural awareness and sensitivity is also important.” Jerkowski has studied how Hispanic women in the Capital Region interact with the health care system. She said they tend to believe they are discriminated against because they do not speak English and are more likely to be on a public insurance program; 70 percent reported delaying care because of concerns over cost and transportation, among other things. Studies have shown that minorities are more likely to suffer from a range of ailments, such as diabetes and asthma, and to delay seeking care or receiving preventive screenings. African-American women, for example, are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease and sexually transmitted infections than other groups, while Hispanic women have the highest rates of cervical cancer. Two bills aimed at improving health care for immigrants and minorities have been proposed in both the state Assembly and Senate. One bill would require that medical professionals receive cultural awareness and competence training so that they are able to interact with minority populations in a positive way. The other would provide Medicaid funding for language interpretation services in health care settings. ..............>>>>...............>>>>...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01105&AppName=1
Health care workers should be mandated through legislation to learn multiple languages before they are licensed to practice in the United States. They should at least have to learn the all the languages spoken within a 100 mile radius of the health care facility where they are practicing before getting licensed. Why put the burden on the poor immigrant to learn the language of the country they immigrate to? Or maybe through affirmative action we can mandate hospitals to hire under qualified doctors and nurses that proportionately resemble the community they are servicing. If you have a 50% Mexican population(both legal and illegal), then you need a 50% representation in the doctors offices and hospitals. It only makes sense.
The norm in this country has been for English speaking patients trying to understand a non-english speaking doctor. Especially in the ER's!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
At least this followed the democrap liberal press template without deviation: Some poor, downtrodden, immigrant, minority (double minority in this instance) somehow perfectly noble individual who is part of a like group, is being dsicriminated against, screwed over, kept down and in this case having their lives put in jeopardy by...you guessed it...THE BIG BAD, EVIL, SH!TTY, NO GOOD, REPRESSIVE, DISCRIMINATORY, GREEDY, THOUGHTLESS US OF Go_damned A!!!!!
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
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