Language Access Resources

CultureMed ( http://culturedmed.sunyit.edu/foreign/index.html ) maintains an extremely extensive catalog of sites(with information in languages other than English) related to health education and cultural competency. Many of these sites have been selected for listing below.

EurasiaHealth Knowledge Network (a project of the American International Health Alliance / AIHA) is an on-line clearinghouse featuring a library of multilingual health resources (over 400 health related translated materials) http://www.eurasiahealth.org

Health Roads Media - This site contains free health education materials in a number of languages in audio, written, multi media, and webpage video formats. http://www.healthyroadsmedia.org/

National Center for Cultural Competence – Georgetown University. Maintains a wide array of resources on cultural and Linguistic competence (e.g. demographic information, policies, practices, articles, books, curricula and multimedia materials) http://gucchd.georgetown.edu/nccc/index.html

Office of Minority Health Resource Center (OMHRC) Distributes information on a wide variety of health topics for minority populations, including substance abuse, cancer, heart disease, violence, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and infant mortality http://www.omhrc.gov/

SPIRAL (Selected Patient Information in Asian Languages) information in Cambodia/Khmer, Chinese, Hmong, Korean, Lao, Thai, Vietnamese. http://www.library.tufts.edu/hsl/spiral/

The 24 Languages Project funded by the National Library of Medicine. This project is in partnership with the Utah Department of Health, the Immunization Action Coalition, AAPCHO, and many others to improve access to health materials in multiple languages. http://medstat.med.utah.edu/24languages

California Standards for Health Care Interpreters: Ethical Principals, Protocols, and Guidance on Roles, and Intervention - Provides an overview on the complex role of health care interpreters, as well as provides protocols for the field. Produced by the California Healthcare Interpreters Association and funded by the California Endowment. http://www.calendow.org/reference/publications/pdf/cultural/TCE0701-2002_California_Sta.pdf

CLAS ( National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services Standards) - The CLAS standards are primarily directed at health care organizations; however, individual providers are also encouraged to use the standards to make their practices more culturally and linguistically accessible. The principles and activities of culturally and linguistically appropriate services should be integrated throughout an organization and undertaken in partnership with the communities being served. The 14 standards are organized by themes: Culturally Competent Care (Standards 1-3), Language Access Services (Standards 4-7), and Organizational Supports for Cultural Competence (Standards 8-14) http://www.omhrc.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=15. Also available in Spanish at http://www.omhrc.gov/assets/pdf/checked/spanishexeSum.PDF.

When You or Your Family Members Have a Serious Illness: What Are Your Care Options? - Palliative Care Brochure in English and Spanish by UCSF's Center for the Health Professions.

Culture and Clinical Care by Juliene Lipson and Suzanne Dibble, 2006 - Each chapter outlines issues related to health and illness, attitudes about disability, symptom expression, self-care, birth, breastfeeding, food practices, death, religion, family participation in care, and other key issues.

CLAS-talk - discussion group sponsored by Resources for Cross Cultural Health Care and the DiversityRx website (www.diversityRx.org). Participants can raise issues, ask questions, share information and resources and network with each other around topics related to the design, delivery and evaluation of culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) in health care. You will also receive updates on new publications, policies and events related to CLAS. http://lists.diversityrx.org/mailman/listinfo/clastalk-list

Communicating Effectively Through An Interpreter: Barriers to Communication - Created by the Cross Cultural Health Care Program, PacMed Clinics. This video was developed to help providers choose appropriate interpreters, recognize signs of professional and unprofessional interpretation, work effectively with a trained interpreter, and guide an untrained interpreter. Length of video in minutes: 28:14. www.xculture.org

Diversity Rx - a clearinghouse of information on how to meet the language and cultural needs of minorities, immigrants, refugees and other diverse populations seeking health care. http://www.diversityrx.org/HTML/ESWEL.htm

Gestures: The Do’s and Taboos of Body Language Around the World - Axtell, Roger E. New York : Wiley. 1991

Health Care Interpreter Training in the State of California - This is a survey of 21 health care interpreter training programs in California , all of which prepare interpreters to work exclusively or partially in health care settings. The dual purpose of the survey is to analyze current trends in interpreter training and to produce a compendium of programs as a resource for those seeking training. http://www.calendow.org/reference/publications/pdf/cultural/TCE0212-2003_Health_Care_In.pdf

Improving Patient Safety Through Informed Consent for Patients with Limited Health Literacy - Published by the National Quality Forum. This focuses on patients with communication barriers due to limited Enflish proficiency or limited literacy. It recommends a number of steps to improved informed consent. http://www.qualityforum.org/docs/informed_consent/webinformedconsentMember+public09-13-05.pdf

Testing New Technologies in Medical Interpreting - This manual created by the Cambridge Health Alliance, covers Face-to-Face Medical Interpreting, Telephone Medical Interpreting, Videoconferencing Medical Interpreting, Remote Simultaneous Medical Interpreting (RSMI), as well as data collection and analysis on these uses. http://www.challiance.org/internal_links/tnt_hndbk.pdf

“Valuing Diversity: Communicating Across Cultures” - video. Examines differences in communication styles. Shows the misunderstandings that can result when people of different national origin or ethnic background (or even personality) try to communicate. Models for more effective communication are provided. Length of video in minutes: 30 minutes. Contact: Griggs Productions, 302 23 rd Avenue , San Francisco , CA 94121. Call: 415-455-1500 / 1-800-210-4200

Industry Collaboration Effort - ICE is a volunteer, multi-disciplinary team of providers, health plans, associations, state and federal agencies and accrediting bodies working collaboratively to improve health care regulatory compliance through education of the public. http://www.iceforhealth.org/home.asp

California Health Care Interpreting Association (CHIA) - CHIA is a public charity composed of health care workers and providers dedicated to improving the quality and availability of language services in the delivery of health care. http://www.chia.ws/pages/index.php

California Pan-Ethnic Health Network - statewide network of multicultural health organizations; Provides data and resources (charts and statistics on racial and ethnic disparities in health conditions, charts and stats on the different rates of health insurance coverage, charts and statistics on the racial and ethnic make up of California, and language preference http://www.cpehn.org/democharts.php

California State Rural Health Association (CSRHA) - a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots organization that works to improve the health of rural Californians and the quality and accessibility of the heath care they receive. http://www.csrha.org/

EthnoMed - The EthnoMed site contains information about cultural beliefs, medical issues and other related issues pertinent to the health care of recent immigrants to Seattle or the US , many of whom are refugees fleeing war-torn parts of the world. http://ethnomed.org

National Health Law Program (NHeLP) - The National Health Law Program is a national public interest law firm that seeks to improve health care for America's working and unemployed poor, minorities, the elderly and people with disabilities. NHeLP serves legal services programs, community-based organizations, the private bar, providers and individuals who work to preserve a health care safety net for the millions of uninsured or underinsured low-income people. http://www.healthlaw.org/about.cfm

Medical Leadership Council on Cultural Proficiency (MLC) - Convened by The California Endowment since 2002, the Medical Leadership Council on Cultural Proficiency (MLC) represents leadership from provider organizations representing hospitals, health plans, medical and specialty societies. The Council has since developed a statement of policy principles on cultural proficiency to serve as guidance for their respective organizations' public policy and educational activities. http://www.medicalleadership.org/

Communicating Effectively Through An Interpreter - This 28-minute video/DVD is designed to help providers in: choosing an appropriate interpreter, recognizing the signs of professional and unprofessional interpretation, working effectively with a trained interpreter, and guiding an untrained interpreter. produced by the Cross Cultural Health Care Program, Seattle, WA (www.xculture.org; tel:206-860-0329)

The Bilingual Medical Interview I & The Bilingual Medical Interview II: The Geriatric Interview - Prepared by the Section of General Interest Medicine, Boston Medical Center, in colloaboration with the Dept. of Interpreter Services and the Boston Area Health Education Center: Call: 617-534-5258

The Health Care Interpreters Network Video - This video informs about remote video interpretation and features LEAD Participants from cohort one. To see/download the video, visit http://www.onerivermedia.com/quest/ and click on "Quest Story_1_v3". This should automatically bring up Windows Media Player, which all Windows computers should have. Once it's playing, you can save it to your computer (or whatever disk/CD you like) by going under "File" and then "Save Media As".

The Office of Minority Health's: Reports - "A patient-centered guide to implementing language access services in healthcare organizations" & "Guidelines for assessing interpreter services". http://www.omhrc.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=107 If you cannot log into this link, go to the Office of Minority Health Resource Center at http://www.omhrc.gov, look for Cultural Competency; Guides and Resources on the toolbar.

The Professional Interpreter - Distributed by Vancouver Community College Interpreting Programs Continuing Education. Call: 604-871-7070