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Community Interpreter Services

Language and Cultural Access Program
Asian Health Services, Oakland, CA

Overview:
Asian Health Services is a private, non-profit community health center, which also provides interpreter services to hospitals and medical centers. The Language and Cultural Access Program (LCAP) began in 1994 as an Opening Doors Project of the Robert Wood Johnson and Kaiser Family Foundation. The LCAP program goals are to

1. build awareness and commitment among health care providers, organizations, and policy makers to the responsibility and benefits of providing language access and cultural competence within the rapidly changing health care system; and
2. develop a model of a shared pool of language and cultural interpretation resources available to public, private, and non-profit health care providers to enhance access to services by reducing language and cultural barriers.

Description of Program:
The LCAP conducted a market study and developed a plan to create an interpretation system that would provide over-the-phone and face-to-face linguistic and cultural interpretation for several languages. Staffed by a pool of 10-18 on-call employees plus a few Asian Health Service staff, the proram currently (1997) provides a total of 1500-1800 on-site interpretation encounters per year (2,000-2,500 hours). AHS staff coordinate services, as well as other aspects of the LCAP, and a primary staff person has dispatching responsibilities.

Intended audience/client base:
Health care providers, hospitals, medical centers, to expand their ability to serve the limited-English speaking population. Primary language groups currently include: Cantonese, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Korean. Unique characteristics: LCAP developed a training program for interpreters. Over 50 hours of training are provided by a team of trainers comprised of health interpreters, clinicians, LCAP staff, and other health personnel. In addition, a training of about 3 hours is provided to clinicians in how to work with interpreters. The community is involved through the advisory committee, focus groups, and in the eveluation process. LCAP also offers multilingual health education programs and health materials to meet the needs of diverse groups.

Cost of services:
Funding for the program is derived from a combination of sources: self-generated revenues (fee-for-service), grants, and contracts.

Interpreter wages:
$16.60-$18.00/hour for on-site work; $.50/minute for telephone work.

Charges to facilities using the service:
$35-52/hour on-site, depending on time of day and whether or not they are monthly subscriber. Telephone charges - $1.25-2.00/minutes also depending on time of day and subscriber status.

Resources that can be shared:
Directory of Training Programs in US & Canada (cost to be determined); Across Language and Culture: A Curriculum for Training Health Care Interpreters ($150); Managed Care Translated Terms (to be available 9/98, cost to be determined). Open to exchanging information in other areas.

Contact Information:
Linda Okahara or Ann Chun
Asian Health Services
818 Webster Street
Oakland, CA 98607.

Phone: 510-986-6830
Fax: 510-986-6866
E-mail: achun@ahschc.org

Bilingual Interpreter Services

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