Imagine for a moment that you cannot read this. Your eyesight is fine. It’s just that you don’t read, write, or speak any English. Now pretend you’re elderly, with no family, barely able to make ends meet, and experiencing one or more significant health problems that need medical attention. If you’re a bit concerned, so are a lot of other people.
According to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, close to 2 million people in the United States do not speak English. U.S. residents now speak 329 languages, and in some cities, less than 60 percent of the population speaks English. Many are elderly who are unable to receive proper healthcare because of language barriers.
But if you lived in the Los Angeles area, you could take advantage of a Multicultural Healthcare Initiative sponsored by the Angelus Plaza where simultaneous interpretation is conducted for lectures and panel discussions.
For instance, when Dr. David Shavelle spoke to a large and ethnically diverse group of Southern California elderly, the audience heard his counsel on cholesterol and heart health in four languages.
The Good Samaritan Hospital cardiologist, along with simultaneous translators from Pals for Health, used Listen Technologies Corporation transmitters to send their words over radio waves in English, Chinese, Korean and Spanish.
Non-English speaking members of the audience, as well as those who needed auditory assistance in English, donned small wireless receivers and headsets to listen to the doctor’s advice in a language they understood at a volume they could hear.