Does Not Being Able to Speak English Inhibit Proper Health Care?

More and more people are coming to the United States and do not know English. Unfortunately this can cause many problems for non-English speaking citizens who try to access medical care. A lot of hospitals offer interpreting services but that is not nearly enough.

Imagine the patient is sitting in a doctor's office feeling very ill and nervous. The doctor comes in and is not able to speak the patient's language. This means the doctor can not get a medical history and in order to safely and properly treat someone that is information a doctor must have. The doctor shows the patient a chart that is written in different languages and the patient points to the Spanish translation. Now the doctor has to go out front and request that an interpreter be paged. Meanwhile the patient is sitting in the doctors examining room nervous, not feeling well, and has no idea what is going on. Feelings of anger, frustration and shame are common. Being put in that situation over and over can cause people to feel under valued. Most people do not liking waiting in the doctor's office at all, imagine waiting around and having no clue what is going on!

A lot of non-English speaking citizens bring family members, usually children, to appointments to translate rather then trying to rely on the doctor's office to help out. These types of situations put children in very awkward positions. They might feel responsible for their parents which is a big burden and very stressful. Children feel that if there parent is not given proper healthcare then it's their fault because they translated something wrong. Sometime parents will blame their children for not translating properly and that they must be doing something wrong. It is also embarrassing for the parent and the child to be discussing personal details to a complete stranger. Children might make a mistake when translating which could cause entire new slew of problems. Children have to negotiate insurance, co-pays and making appointments. These types of tasks are frustrating to adults; imagine how a child must feel.