Tip of the Week
Language Barriers Keep Hispanics from Care
Good news on breaking down language barriers for Hispanic patients? No, not really, according to a survey funded by a supplemental medical insurance provider, Aflac.
In the national 2023 study of Spanish-speaking patients, a third of the 2,001 employed adults surveyed said language is an obstacle in their path toward meeting medical needs and understanding insurance policies.
Some key findings include:
- Language Barrier Impact — Language barriers prevent 31% of Hispanics from accessing preventive care resources such as blood tests, pap smears, mammograms, STDs, skin cancer, and colonoscopies.
- Skipping Checkups — The study found that 25% of Hispanics skip regular checkups. Reasons cited include lack of insurance, uncovered costs, and labor disputes.
- Demanding Better Care — More than 60 percent of Hispanic respondents said that healthcare providers and organizations need to better engage and educate the Latino community on the benefits of being proactive with their health and wellness.
- Gender Dynamics — Hispanic men have a more positive outlook on their current and future health compared to women, especially on issues such as controlling their current weight/BMI (64% vs. 45%); financial health (57% vs. 44%); mental health (71% vs. 62%); and physical health (77% vs. 63%).
Seat at the Table: Serve on Equitable Health Care Task Force
Here’s a chance to voice your opinions on health equity and optimal health outcomes — and in a way that’s more likely to result in change than simply mumbling around the water cooler.
The Minnesota Department of Health is looking for members to sit on its legislatively-mandated Equitable Health Care Task Force. Members will examine race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender identity, age and disability as they search for ways to guarantee respectful and equitable care.
Want to apply for a seat? Go to Equitable Health Care Task Force or Board/Commission Equitable Health Care Task Force. Applicants must submit a cover letter; other materials such as resumes and letters of recommendation are optional.
Conference Goal: Make Health Education Material Relevant
Translating health education materials is a step in the right direction. But if the material is difficult to understand in English, translation won’t make it better. Get insight on improving the usefulness of your communication at the virtual Health Literacy Annual Research Conference, hosted by Health Literacy Research and Practice and scheduled for October 30-31.
Keynote Addresses include:
- Making Numbers Meaningful for Patients and Clients, Jessica Ancker PhD, MPH, FACMI, Professor and Vice Chair for Educational Affairs, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
- The Chatbot Told Me to Stop Taking My Medication – Health Literacy and Large Language Models, Tim Bickmore PhD, MSE, BSE, Professor, Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University
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This online conference includes more than 35 speakers in over two dozen sessions. Among them:
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Human Interpreters: How threatened by AI?
What’s does job security look like for interpreters in the face of recent advances in artificial intelligence? Get the low down from Middlebury Institute of International Studies associate professor Barry Olson, a conference interpreter with 25 years of experience. Olson is also the founder of Interpret America.
In his in-depth review, Olsen breaks this moment in time into three baskets:
- Technologies for the delivery of interpreting services
- Technologies that augment an interpreter’s performance
- Technologies designed to replace human interpreters‘ purpose altogether
There are situations in which good enough is good enough — where AI more or less gets the job done. But in medical, legal and diplomatic venues, uncorrected mistakes could be catastrophic. Hold on tight as the future of interpreting reveals itself.
Webinar Helps Put Communication in Cultural Context
Getting the language right in health communication is one thing, but placing the words in a relevant cultural context is another. Get insight from industry experts on creating a culturally appropriate environment in a Public Health Communications Collaborative webinar, Noon – 1:30 pm, Thursday, September 21.
Panelists include:
- Erica Chung, MPH, COVID-19 Cultural Communications Specialist, Minnesota Department of Health
- Maria Griffin, Owner, Spo-ka’nay Enterprises
- Syreeta Wilkins, Communications Strategist, National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants, and Migrants (NRC-RIM)
Zoom registration available at Culturally Driven Strategies: Tailoring Health Communications to Build Understanding and Trust.
Medical Interpretation in the U.S.: Inadequate Approaches Harm Patients
Here’s a dose of bad news from the Hastings Center on the failures of medical interpretation and the resulting harm to patients.
In this recent essay, Medical Interpretation in the U.S. is Inadequate and Harming Patients, a team of writers observe that there’s a shortage of in-person medical interpreters, which has led hospitals to turn to machine language tools such as Google Translate. You’re more likely to end up in the ballpark if the language in question is Spanish, but watch out if it is, for instance, Chinese. Studies that compare Spanish and Chinese interpretations found that errors are more common in Chinese and more likely to present life-threatening harm.
Throw in a lack of cultural competence training among staff interpreters, and the consequences can include delayed emergency care for children, an increase in errors and costs, and a decrease in care quality and patient satisfaction.
The Hastings Center report goes beyond the mere translation of words and digs deeper into the nuances of the medical exchange. “Expecting patients to adhere to Western constructs of health communication is unfair and unjust,” writers Riya Dahima, Melinda Luo and Vrushali Dhongade contend. “We must consider how linguistic differences and cultural values impact patients’ expectations and decision-making.”
Hazy Days, Health Risks: Info in Spanish, English
Those hazy days that result from distant fires raise an obvious question: what can I do to protect myself and my family both indoors and outdoors? Here’s information in Spanish and English that offers steps you and your patients can take, plus an explanation on what air quality is and how it is evaluated.
Download this resource from the Public Health Communications Collaborative here.
Stress and Self-Care: Get Tips on How to Cope
Are you or your co-workers worn down by the stress of trying to meet the needs of immigrant and refugee communities? Here’s information that can help, to be offered by the Metro Immigrant and Refugee Health Network in a WebEx meeting scheduled for Tues., Aug. 8, 9:30-11 am.
The program, Self-Care for Professionals Working with Immigrant and Refugee Communities, will be presented by Dr. Christine Danner, Director of Behavioral Health at MHealth Fairview Clinic Bethesda.
Also included in the program is an overview of the voter registration process.
Register here by Aug. 7. After you register, you will receive an email with instructions for joining the meeting online or by phone. Direct questions to cynthia.trevino@state.
Webinar Tackles Traumatic Stress in Refugee Kids
Among the challenges for refugee youth: overcoming stress resulting from migration and resettlement. At worst they can be subject to abuse, exploitation and trafficking, but also routinely suffer from limited access to resources and the dislocation of existing as a stranger in a strange land.
This free webinar, set for Tuesday, August 1, 12 p.m., will help you define and identify abuse, exploitation and trafficking and offer you strategies for responding. Training is intended for caseworkers, healthcare and mental health professionals, teachers, and anyone else serving children and youth.
Register here: Traumatic Stress Among Refugee Children
Interpreters: Only the Lonely?
What is a problem all too common for medical interpreters? When Kelly Henriquez asked that question at a panel on interpreter self-care at a national conference, the answer she got was, Loneliness.
Henriquez, a dual-certified Spanish medical/healthcare interpreter working in Virginia, noted these trends:
- Many interpreters don’t know where to turn for help.
- Fourteen percent reported they never got training on how to address their mental health needs.
- In-person interpreters were more likely to get an emotional boost from their work.
- Remote workers were more likely to report a decline in mental health.
- Certification such as that offered by the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters was a predictor of how many tools interpreters had to fight feelings of isolation and loneliness.
For more detail, and for self-care tips, find Henriquez’s blog post on the subject here.
Taking It to the Next Level: Simultaneous Interpretation
It’s one thing to interpret with pauses allowed in the exchange between speakers. But as this amusing and instructive video explains, simultaneous interpretation is a more daunting and sophisticated task that requires years of preparation.
The instance depicted by the video throws an especially hard curve, in that the interpreted conversation is between earthlings and an alien. Probably not a situation you’ll encounter in your professional role, but well worth a look to expand your knowledge of the interpreter’s job.
The Art Behind Translation
Usually we’re here concerned with the utilitarian aspects of translation. How does a Hmong patient, for example, best learn more about foot care with diabetes, post-op care or child immunization schedules?
This week let’s take a step off the path and consider the artistic aspects of the translator’s job. In this New York Times piece, “Building Something Together’: Translators Discuss Their Art,” five translators describe the joys and frustrations of turning literature from other languages into English.
Literary translators have often gone unrecognized, and the profession has never been much of a route to wealth. Yet, as the Times observes, “The act of carrying a work from one language to another — an art as much as a craft — is anything but mechanical: Translators’ choices are informed by their sensibilities, their emotional landscape, their background.”
AI vs. Human Interpreters: Who Wins?
Take a look at this video that compares the efforts of two human interpreters against interpretation provided by the AI app, Kudo. The results? Less weighted against AI than you might think.
The human interpreters found some of the language employed by their AI counterpart “borderline nonsensical,” and observed that pauses in speech confused the interpretation app. But in cases where the speaker was throwing out a torrent of words, AI did better, they allowed. “I was taken aback,” said one, that the app conveyed all of the content.
These, of course, are the early days of this technology. At the moment, neither of the humans felt it was ready for situations where a lot is at stake — such as negotiations among nations, courtrooms and medical environments. But to watch the video is also to realize that big changes are right around the corner.
When the Translator Is a Child
Navigating the medical, governmental and business structures of the US is a routine challenge for college-educated native English speakers. Now imagine attempting the same as a recent immigrant. And now take it a step further: you’re a child in an immigrant household, but you’re the most proficient English. You have now become the family translator, with all the perils and responsibilities that come with the role.
This 20-minute film, Translators, is a deeply moving view of these fraught situations. The children and families depicted struggle to do the best they can, but the many difficulties come leaping off the screen. The film presents tough, complicated encounters, but leaves the judgments up to you. It’s well worth your time.
Get Help Treating Trauma in Refugee Kids
Get a handle on understanding the effect of traumatic stress on children who have been displaced and relocated by force in this free webinar, Traumatic Stress Among Refugee Children and Youth, set for noon to 1:30 pm, Wednesday, June 21.
Presented by Switchboard, the US hub for resettlement service providers, the three-part webinar will explore how stress can disrupt the daily lives of children, complicate their adjustment to their new home, and interfere with their ability to make friends with other kids.
These webinars are intended for direct service staff, including case workers, medical case workers, mental health professionals, educators, and other child- and youth-serving professionals who work with newcomer children and families.
After participating in this 90-minute session, you will be able to:
- Describe traumatic stress, resilience, and attachment in refugee children
- Identify common trauma-related reactions and behaviors in children of different ages and developmental stages
- Summarize key approaches to support refugee children and help them to thrive in their new homes
To register, visit Traumatic Stress Among Refugee Children and Youth Webinar Series
A Little Creepy: Multi-Lingual AI Fueled Robot
Get a look at a version of the future — here’s an AI-powered robot that switches with alacrity from English to German to Chinese to Japanese in a Q&A with an off-screen interviewer. A video of the conversation appears in this New York Post story, ‘World’s most advanced’ AI robot speaks several languages in creepy video.” Hard to say what’s most unsettling: the robot’s facility with language, or the visible mechanical body parts attached to a more-or-less human face. You can’t watch without wondering, If this is a fork in the road, where are we going to end up?
How to Keep Women Alive: Give Them Money
Health Rx: Money
A global study recently published in the magazine Nature reveals a solution to lowering death rates among women: make cash grants to them and their families. In countries making such payments, deaths among women fell by 20 percent, while deaths among children younger than five dropped by eight percent. The analysis encompassed seven million people in 37 countries.
The results were roughly the same whether the grants had strings attached, such as school attendance, or where payments had no additional requirements.
In a companion piece in the New York Times, University of North Carolina epidemiologist Audrey Pettifor said the findings are relevant for rich and poor countries alike. Meanwhile, concerns about misuse of the funds, such as squandering money on drugs, alcohol or junk food, turn out to be trivial. “The data just doesn’t back that up,” she said.
“Belonging”: The Latest Twist on Diversity Training
The New York Times recently took a crack at explaining the latest permutation of diversity training in this story: Why Some Companies Are Saying ‘Diversity and Belonging’ Instead of ‘Diversity and Inclusion.’
Reporter Jennifer Miller describes a new generation of diversity consultants who are selling “belonging” and “bridge building” to corporate clients. Miller writes: “They are coming to the aid of executives who fear that national divisions are penetrating the workplace, threatening to drive a wedge between colleagues and making everyone feel anxious and defensive.”
Critics contend that they “can see that corporations want to have a structured conversation around how allowing all of us to thrive will help us all collectively,” but worry that “belonging” gives cover to people who would rather maintain the status quo. “There’s still a large percentage of people who have a zero sum mind-set. If I support you, I am going to lose.”
Info to Get Patients Back on Well-Baby Track Post COVID
Did your patients postpone well-child visits and immunizations during three years of worry about COVID-19? Here are reminders in Hmong, Spanish and Somali that explain why they should get back on track. This Minnesota Council of Health Plans website explains which immunizations are critical for children at various ages, and shows how to get up-to-date records of which specific shots a patient’s child needs.
Why Money, Education Offer Scant Protection for Black Moms
A recent Tip of the Week reported on research showing that more money and more education generally protects women from bad birth outcomes — except if you’re Black. Compared to the richest white mothers, the richest Black mothers and their babies are twice as likely to die from childbirth.
Here’s a follow-up story in the New York Times, Unwanted Epidurals, Untreated Pain: Black Women Tell Their Birth Stories, that offers a personal version of negative experiences that Black moms suffered while navigating the healthcare system.
How does the trouble start? “Long before women become pregnant,” researchers told the Times. “It happens across health care settings, with research showing that even if medical staff is empathetic overall, just one such interaction can have a big effect. It continues through childbirth, when discrimination, unconscious or not, affects Black mothers’ hospital care.
“These long-term issues of disparities in maternal outcomes can’t be boiled down to class,” said Tyan Parker Dominguez, who studies race and birth outcomes at the University of Southern California School of Social Work. “Racism doesn’t operate along economic lines, because even when you control for that, it’s still a factor.”
Get Help with Crisis Communication
Communicating health risks in an emergency to immigrant, refugee and migrant communities can be tricky. Get help via this best practices webinar, set for Tuesday, May 9, noon – 1:30 p.m., offered by the Minnesota Department of Health and the National Resource Center for Refugees Immigrants and Migrants.
The goal is to sharpen the abilities of public health workers to communicate crucial information during a crisis. “The webinar,” organizers say, “will provide a cultural lens in risk communication with RIM communities.” Speakers include Sahan Journal founder Mukhtar M. Ibrahim, plus Doug Schultz and Michael Schommer from the Minnesota Department of Health.
The Bias Inside Us
In case you missed it until now, here’s a lively online exhibition offered by the Smithsonian Institution. The Bias Inside Us sets out to:
- Help people understand and counter their implicit biases.
- Build capacity in communities to convene dialogue that will increase empathy.
- Inspire more inclusive schools, communities, and workplaces.
This presentation comes in these five sections:
- Bias Lives Inside All of Us
- The Science of Bias
- Bias IRL*(*in real life)
- Serious Consequences
- Retrain Your Brain
The Health Effects of a Daily Dose of Racism
Arline Geronimus
Here’s another way of looking at the causes of health disparities. Thirty years ago, University of Michigan researcher Arline Geronimus advanced a theory that the stress of living in a racist society can lead to bad health outcomes for marginalized groups.
Attempting to explain the immense difference in mortality rates between Black and white babies, Geronimus had gathered data on more than 300,000 pregnant women. Black babies then died at more than double the rate of white babies in their first year of life. The greater rate of Black teen pregnancies was commonly assumed to explain the gap.
Geronimus’s investigation stood that hypothesis on its head: Black teens’ babies were healthier than those of Black women in their 20s and older. Geronimus speculated that because Black teens had endured fewer years of racism-induced stress, they gave birth to healthier children. She labeled this stress as “weathering,” like a rock worn down in a vigorous stream.
For her trouble she was attacked so vociferously from both the left and right that she retreated from the debate. Now, three decades later, further investigation on the effects of stress and trauma has given her early work new life and resulted in her recently released book, Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society. Get a run down on Geronimus’s analysis and its contemporary uses in this New York Times piece, How ‘Weathering’ Contributes to Racial Health Disparities.
Ancient Spanish in New Mexico: End of the Line?
If you’re interested in the life span of languages, here’s an intriguing story in the New York Times, New Mexico Is Losing a Form of Spanish Spoken Nowhere Else on Earth.
The piece describes the arrival of Spanish-speaking migrants who settled in a remote corner of what is now New Mexico in the late 1500s. Cut off from the flow of Spanish-language speakers in more accessible locales, this version of Spanish came to incorporate vocabulary from native languages, and, eventually, English, while retaining verb conjugations trapped in the 1500s.
But with youth more interested in computer screens, and an older generation still conversant in the dialect dying out, the future of this Spanish subset is uncertain.
“Our unique Spanish is at real risk of dying out,” Cynthia Rael-Vigil, 68, told the Times. Rael-Vigil traces her ancestry to a member of the 1598 expedition that claimed New Mexico as one of the Spanish Empire’s most remote domains. “Once a treasure like this is lost, I don’t think we realize, it’s lost forever.”
Read about efforts to preserve this tongue in the link above.
Health Info: Make It Easy to Understand
Here’s help on getting your health messages across in a way that most people can understand. Check out a new resource from the Public Health Communications Collaborative, Plain Language for Public Health.
Clear communication helps beat back harmful health-related fabrications. “When accurate information about public health is hard to find or understand, it’s easier for false and misleading information to circulate. Using plain language can help your audience find what they need and understand what they find,” the authors note.
The guide walks you through the following three steps:
- Step 1: Prepare Your Communications
- Step 2: Develop and Organize Your Communications
- Step 3: Review and Testing
Artificial Intelligence Meets Translating, Interpreting
Good news if you happen to be an athlete, bus mechanic, or short order cook. Those professions are judged to be least affected as artificial intelligence becomes, well, more intelligent, according to a paper published in March by University of Pennsylvania and Open AI researchers, “An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models.”
What’s good for short order cooks could shape up poorly for translators and interpreters. The researchers determined whether AI apps could reduce by at least 50 percent the time required for a human to complete a work task. Translators and interpreters topped the list of AI endangered professions, with more than 75 percent of their job functions vulnerable to AI advances.
For interpreters and translators, the news isn’t all dire. The paper’s authors explain that their work won’t necessarily be fully automated and eliminated. AI-powered software, however, may be able to “save workers a significant amount of time completing a large share of their tasks.”
See a quick rundown of most affected professions on the slator.com website, here.
Economic Disparities: A Deep Dive into Cultural Differences
Get a close look at the continuing deep economic disparities among Minnesota’s different cultural groups in “The Economic Status of Minnesotans 2023,” a new report by the Minnesota State Demographic Center.
The report analyzes data points that compare the state’s 17 largest cultural groups, including Somali, Hmong, Mexican, Dakota and white, among others.
The report highlights glaring disparities. For instance, median household income ranged from a low of about $28,800 for Somali households and certain American Indian households to a high of $120,600 for Asian Indian households. White households had a median income of about $75,000.
Similarly, unemployment differed wildly among cultural groups. It was four times higher among adults from American Indian, African American, and Somali communities compared to Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Lao, Vietnamese, Puerto Rican and white households. Homeownership — commonly viewed as a key factor in building generational wealth — varied from a high of 77 percent for white households to 25 percent for African Americans, and 11 percent among Somalis.
COVID Treatment in Translation Via Telehealth
English, Hmong, Somali and Spanish speakers can get easier access to care and treatment — and suffer less risk of serious disease — through a telehealth partnership between the Minnesota Department of Health and Cue Health.
Here’s how it works. Minnesotans who get a positive result from an at-home test can download the Cue Health app and sign up for a virtual consult with a clinician. They’ll be evaluated to decide whether therapeutic treatment is a good option. If so, they’ll get a prescription delivered to their local pharmacy, or, depending on their location, to their home. It’s free, and available to all MInnesota residents.
Get more information on downloading and getting started with the Cue Health App. Click “Get Started” for options in English, Hmong, Somali and Spanish.
Staggering Infant Death Disparities and a Path Toward Equity
If you’re on the lookout for shocking statistics, here are some from a recent New York Times story, Childbirth Is Deadlier for Black Families Even When They’re Rich, Expansive Study Finds.
For the richest white mothers, 173 babies die before their first birthday per 100,000 births. For poorest white mothers, 350 babies die. But for the richest black mothers, 437 of their babies die before that first birthday, while 653 babies of the poorest mothers die within the same time span.
What’s to be done about that? One step is to participate in the upcoming Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act: Anti-Racism and Implicit Bias Curriculum Informational Meeting, scheduled for Thursday, March 2, 12-1 p.m.
Sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Health’s Maternal and Child Health Section, the eLearning course described in the meeting is designed for hospitals with obstetric care and birth centers. MDH has partnered with the University of Minnesota Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity (CARHE) which developed an interactive eLearning course to meet the criteria listed in the Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act. This Minnesota law, which went into effect in January 2023, addresses inequities in maternal health care, and requires hospitals with obstetric care and birth centers to:
- develop or access a continuing education curriculum,
- make available a continuing education course on anti-racism training and implicit bias.
Learn How to Fight Health Misinformation
Here’s a free virtual symposium sponsored by the National Library of Medicine that will help you beat back the plethora of misinformation that keeps people from getting quality care. Set for April 4-6, a team of presenters will provide information in these areas:- Research behind health misinformation movements.
- Practical and evidence-based solutions to support librarians, health educators, and direct care providers in combating the spread of all types of health misinformation
- The effects of health misinformation on individuals and communities.
- Tools to understand health research, combating social media and community spread of health misinformation.
Who’s it for? Librarians, health professionals, new and experienced researchers, students, and others interested in the research behind health misinformation and practical and evidence-based solutions to combat health misinformation.
Long COVID Info, Translated
This just in from the Minnesota Department of Health: short videos about the vexatious issue of long COVID, translated into Spanish, Somali, Hmong and English, available here.
These videos are a contribution to narrowing the disparities of long COVID on different communities. Minnesotans of color, American Indians, people with disabilities, those who live in rural or low-income areas, people in the LGBTQ community, or those who are homeless or in unstable housing may be more likely to experience long COVID. Find a descriptive sheet on long COVID symptoms, treatment and prevention (in English) here.
An extensive list of related resources and support, again provided by the Minnesota Department of Health in English, is available here.
For Black Women: The Case for Doulas
Take a look at this New York Times article — ‘I Don’t Want to Die’: Fighting Maternal Mortality Among Black Women — that describes the life-saving benefits of a St. Louis doula program.
The article outlines the need for culturally specific care for Black mothers-to-be. “Nationally, Black women are nearly three times as likely to die from a maternal cause as white women: The National Center for Health Statistics reports that in 2020, the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 55.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. The 2020 rate for white women was 19.1 deaths per 100,000 live births.
“Black women are also more likely to have C-sections, have their pain minimized or ignored, report mistreatment, and have stillbirths than white women.
“Over the years, mounting research and high-profile cases of fatal or near-fatal experiences — from that of the tennis superstar Serena Williams to an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — have shown that the grim statistics are often a result of a health care system that leaves Black mothers to fend for themselves.”
The Secret Language of Design
Usually we’re concerned with the vicissitudes of communicating across language barriers. But here’s another way to think about how you’re interacting with patients. Recently the New York Times explored a few of the unspoken pitfalls by which patients get a message far removed from your intentions.
For instance, are the robes you offer uncomfortable and unintentionally revealing? Is the exam room freezing? Is the waiting room TV blaring a never-ending litany of disturbing news? Do the stirrups in a gyn exam room face the door? In short, have you created a physical environment in which patients feel respected or devalued?
For a more detailed analysis of the inadvertent non-verbal messages you may be sending, see How Would You Redesign Your Doctor’s Office: The way clinics make patients feel is an important part of their care.
New Restrictions Confront Asylum Seekers
For would-be asylum seekers attempting to enter the US, the road got longer last week, as 
President Joe Biden announced new restrictions on people fleeing conditions in Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti. Those who simply show up at the border without official paperwork will be denied entry, Biden declared.
In November, more than 82,000 migrants from those four countries crossed into the country illegally.
As many as 30,000 people per month from the four countries will be given the chance to migrate legally to the United States if they can afford a plane ticket, get a sponsor, download an app, pass a background check and meet other requirements.
Biden’s policy shift drew condemnation from all sides. Immigration advocates derided him for doubling down on anti-immigrant measures that were part of the Trump playbook. Meanwhile, Trump-era hardliners said Biden’s new policies would continue to allow thousands of migrants to enter the US while their cases are heard.
For more detailed information on the ongoing immigration imbroglio, check out Biden Announces Major Crackdown on Illegal Border Crossings in the New York Times.
Free Covid Treatment; Guidance in Hmong, Somali, Spanish, English
So you’ve tested Covid positive but wonder what your next move should be. Here’s help — for free, and in English, Hmong, Spanish and Somali — for Minnesota residents who have shown Covid symptoms within the past five days. Download the Cue Health app, sign up with a Minnesota address and you qualify for a virtual consult with a licensed clinician who can help you decide whether therapeutic treatment is a sensible option. If the answer is yes, the clinician can send a prescription to your local pharmacy. In some parts of the state, the meds can be delivered directly to your home.
You don’t need health insurance to qualify for treatment. The app is touted as fast and easy by organizers, and accessible to anyone with a mobile device.
English: download the Cue Health App or call 1-833-283-8378
Español: 1-833-431-2053
Hmong: 1-833-431-2053
Somali: 1-833-431-2053
A Gay Afghani Refugee’s Plight, Animated
Here’s another rendering of the trauma that can underline a refugee’s life, this time describing the flight of “Amin” from Afghanistan as the Taliban takes over. The film, Flee, is a true story, rendered primarily in animation in part to protect the identity of the main characters.
As if Amin’s life weren’t complicated enough — his father has been disappeared, his family will eventually be scattered across Europe after harrowing experiences with traffickers and cops — his attempts to adapt to life in Moscow, Scandinavia and the US are additionally complicated by his identify as a gay man.
The film, by director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, received Oscar nominations for both animated feature and documentary. Interviewed by Rasmussen in Copenhagen, Amin explains, “When you flee as a child, it takes time to learn to trust people,” he says. “You’re constantly on your guard.” The most surprising and affirming moment in this film is when Amin reveals to his family that he is gay.
Unlike most other tips here, there’s a small price tag to stream this video on Amazon Prime, YouTube or Hulu. But at $2.99, it’s probably the best deal you’ll get today.
Music Turned into Motion
How to interpret musical performance for the deaf? That’s the question taken up by the video above, where ASL interpreters transform a song for the hard of hearing.
The nuts and bolts of rendering music in ways that will be meaningful and moving to a deaf audience are explored in this Datebook story, “Deaf interpreter helps the emotion of music come through.” Taken together with the video, it’s a fascinating look at the many ways in which music can be experienced.
Keeping Baby Safe, in Multiple Languages
Here’s a sweet, short video on how to keep your new baby safe, offered up in English, Arabic, Dari, Burmese, Karen, Lingala, Kinyarwanda, Nepali, Pashto, Swahili, Tigrinya, Ukrainian, French, Russian and Spanish.
In simple, direct language, Who She Will Become touches on the importance of car seats, reading to children, barriers to prevent injuries, doctor visits and vaccinations. It’s produced by the University of Minnesota’s National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants.
For Interpreters: What to Do When the News Is Bad
Among the challenges for medical interpreters: how to convey bad news from providers to patients and their families. This hour-and-a-half webinar, presented by InterpretAmerica, takes on the sensitive issues involved.
The recorded webinar is geared toward providing interpreters with tools to anticipate and deal with difficult scenarios. The questions explored here include:
- Should interpreters stick to strict interpretation in emotionally fraught encounters?
- Should they serve as advocates or cultural brokers?
- Should they consider their own emotional quandaries when delivering bad news?
- How do these decision points intersect with the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice?
The Revived Language of Manx
Hear Manx spoken.
How long do languages last? Already it’s not uncommon to hear children of immigrants admit they don’t speak their grandparents’ native tongue that well. What about their children and grandchildren? What does it take to save a language?
Here’s a story from the Isle of Man, stuck in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland. In 2009, UNESCO declared the traditional language of the Island, Manx, extinct. A recent story in the New York Times explained, “For centuries, Manx — part of the Celtic language family like Irish and Scottish Gaelic — was how people on the island communicated in their everyday lives. But by the 19th century, the English language had overtaken it, and many on the Isle of Man raised their children to speak only English amid an increasingly derogatory, sometimes even hostile, attitude toward Manx.”
But the islanders did not uniformly buy the argument that their language was dead. Residents pushed to save the old tongue, promoting its use as part of the local school curriculum in addition other tactics. Read the complete story, An Ancient Language, Once on the Brink, Is a British Isle’s Talk of the Town, here.
RSV, in Translation
Get CDC RSV infographic in Spanish here.
With RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) clearing out local school classrooms, here are translated health information sheets that can help ESL patients get a better understanding of a disease with potentially dire outcomes for young children. Below find pieces from various sources in English, Spanish, Hmong and Somali.
Spanish, English, cited on Medline:
Children
- Bronchiolitis (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
- Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) (March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation) Also in Spanish
- Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV) in Infants and Young Children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
- RSV: When It’s More Than Just a Cold (American Academy of Pediatrics) Also in Spanish
Older Adults
- Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV) in Older Adults and Adults with Chronic Medical Conditions (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
Patient Handouts
- Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- RSV antibody test (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
English, Spanish, Hmong, from Children’s Hospital
English, Somali from Nationwide Children’s
Overview of bronchiolitis, including RSV, in Somali. English version here.
English, Spanish, Hmong from Children’s Hospital
For Newcomers: Sidestepping the Scams
As if being uprooted from your life isn’t tough enough for refugees and immigrants, there are more dangers once they arrive in the US. Among them: the scam artists waiting to take advantage.
You can learn more about how to recognize predatory scheming and find ways to help your clients steer clear at a webinar training set for 1-2:30 pm, Wednesday, December 7. You’ll get info on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and important tips on how newcomers can safely open bank accounts, get access to credit, buy cars and transfer money.
Register for Navigating Personal Finance and Avoiding Scams: An Introduction for Direct Service Providers.
Immigration Policy: Compromise?
A recent story in the New York Times asked the question, Can Republicans and Democrats Find a Way Forward on Immigration? Reporter Eileen Sullivan observes that movement on this sticky issue will necessitate compromise, a quality Washington finds short supply.
Three top issues, Sullivan writes, are:
A deal on the Dreamers — protected for now by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, these are children who came to the US and grew up here. Many of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants sheltered for now by this program labor in agriculture and manufacturing jobs, industries already struggling to find workers. Having exhausted court appeals that would allow them to stay, their fate now lies in the hands of Congress, Sullivan writes.
Border security — this top Republican priority gained more momentum with the recent record-breaking surge in illegal immigration along the southwest border, as migrants attempt to flee violence and poverty in their native lands. Republicans say they aim to restore the Trump administration’s restrictive policies and complete Trump’s vision of a border wall.
Labor shortages — as the economy adds new jobs, there aren’t enough workers to go around. Democrats and businesses, Sullivan writes, argue for easing labor shortages by loosening work authorization policies and creating less cumbersome paths to citizenship. Republican opposition is based on the contention that immigrants take jobs away from citizens.
The Long Wait for Refugee Status
Among the consequences of the US collapse in Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine, and the disintegration of Venezuela: an even longer wait for refugee status for people from other parts of the world. The New York Times recently reported that thousands are left “living in limbo as delays in the U.S. refugee system stretch to an average of five years or more.”
The refugee relocation program — gutted by the Trump administration — is now contending both with rebuilding and with relocating 180,000 people escaping Ukraine and Afghanistan. Another 24,000 Venezuelans are hoping to flee their impoverished country. As a result, would-be refugees from Somalia, Eritrea and Myanmar, who in many instances have already waited for years, are pushed toward the end of the line.
This is a typically heart-breaking story of families torn apart, as members already in the US wade through a bog of bureaucracy while they struggle to reunite with their spouses and children.
Read the complete story, ‘They Forgot About Us’: Inside the Wait for Refugee Status,’ here.
Cultural Bereavement: An Explanation
The New York Times explores another tragic dimension of the immigrant and refugee experience in this story, Missing the Home You Needed to Leave: There is a name for the specific type of grief that both refugees and migrants experience. It’s called “cultural bereavement.”
Defined as more complex and disorienting than culture shock, the Times explains it this way: “Feeling uprooted is something many immigrants are familiar with, split between the here and the back there, between the push to assimilate and the pull to preserve parts of themselves and their culture. And it is often the intangibles from home — the smells and sounds, the metaphors and jokes in a native tongue that can’t be translated, and cherished rituals — that they long for.”
It’s a thought-provoking read, and useful insight for anyone dealing routinely with the disrupted lives of people from so many corners of the world.
Busting Those Myths about Immigration
True or False: Immigrants will take American jobs, lower wages, and especially hurt the poor.
Get a straight answer to this and 14 other common myths about immigrants in the United States. The Cato Institute’s Alex Nowrasteh examines familiar complaints about immigration in his report, The Most Common Arguments Against Immigration and Why They’re Wrong.
Nowrasteh, the Institute’s director of immigrant studies, draws on years of research to derive his analysis of misguided thinking regarding immigrants’ impact on jobs, wages, crime and more.
So, do immigrants take American jobs? According to Nowrasteh, no. At worst, immigrants only negatively affect the wages of a small number of American workers while raising them for the rest, he observes.
Guaranteed Income for Refugees: A Pilot Project
What happens when newly-arrived refugees get a year-long guaranteed income?
An International Institute of Minnesota pilot project is aimed at getting an answer. Intended as a bridge to a stable life in their new home, the program will direct $750 a month for 12 months to 25 families. The project goal, organizers say, “is to demonstrate the impact of a guaranteed income on newly arrived refugees and local economies, and to make known that refugees provide immense cultural, social and economic contributions to Minnesota.”
The money comes with no work requirements or other strings attached. Participants can spend the money as they wish.
Enrolled families had to meet one of these guidelines:
- Single-parent households with children under the age of 15
- Families with four or more children, with one working parent and one parent with obstacles to employment
- Single adults with physical or mental illness limiting their ability to work or obtain employment
- Families or single adults unable to work due to delays in paperwork processing or other barriers beyond their control.
Read more about the program, its funding and plans for evaluation here.
Immigrant, Refugee Health Network Meetings Resume
After a lengthy hiatus, the Minnesota Immigrant and Refugee Health Network is back in business. The first meeting is set for 9:30-11 am, Tuesday, October 11. Register by October 10 here. You’ll get instructions on how to join the meeting after you register.
The network is a way to share knowledge, resources and tools among organizations and individuals serving Minnesota’s immigrant and refugee populations. The October meeting will offer an overview of the Minnesota Department of Health’s Refugee and international Health Program and its current activities.
Direct questions to cynthia.trevino@state.mn.us.
Get Translated Monkeypox Materials
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Stuck in your search for translated health education materials for monkeypox? Here are resources to get you started when treating patients with limited English.
From the Minnesota Department of Health: The basics covered in English, Hmong, Somali, Spanish. (Scroll to the bottom of the page for translations.)
From the City and County of San Fransisco: An outreach toolkit in English, Spanish, Filipino and Chinese.
From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Materials in English and Spanish.
From the California Department of Public Health: Social media messaging in Spanish and English.
Getting the Word Out on Resources You Offer
We’ve previously highlighted the excellent on-line news source, Sahan Journal, as a way to keep up with deep information on the immigrant experience in Minnesota. Here’s another way to make use of this resource as you look for ways to publicize your programs and services.
Journal reporter Hibah Ansari recently compiled a short list of resources publicized in the paper that help make immigrants’ lives easier. Among them, a guide to applying for free school meals in Minnesota, a resource guide for Afghani refugees, an explanation on how to order free COVID tests, and a collection site for donations to Pakistanis displaced by catastrophic flooding there.
Ansari observes that a mention on the website yields results. She writes, “Community support sparked by our coverage made a huge difference in the lives of Afghan refugees. One resettlement agency was able to pay six months’ rent for all of its Afghan clients through donations. A resettlement coordinator told me this was unheard of.”
Here’s contact information to let Journal reporters know about programs and services you have to offer. Keep on top of news from Sahan Journal by subscribing to it’s email newsletter here.