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Interpreters step up for better health

Erika Bredee, a translator with LAMP (Language Access Metro Project), conducts a teleconference with a doctor and her patients at Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center in Kansas City. (John L. White / St. Louis Post-Dispatch / MCT)
Erika Bredee, a translator with LAMP (Language Access Metro Project), conducts a teleconference with a doctor and her patients at Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center in Kansas City. (John L. White / St. Louis Post-Dispatch / MCT)Read more
    by By Harry Jackson Jr., St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT), External or Unknown
    Published 

But Galeano doesn't speak English and the pediatrician, Dr. Colette Fleming, doesn't speak Spanish.

Bredee watched and listened as the doctor examined the child. The doctor and dad watched Bredee on their screen.

Before translating Fleming's English words to Galeano's Honduran ear, Bredee clarified certain words, phrases and instructions with the doctor. Only when she and the doctor agreed they were clear did she translate instructions to Galeano.

After several exchanges, Carlito was deemed healthy. He protested his vaccinations and got an appointment for the next visit.

Clinics were recruiting relatives, friends and even children to translate for them.

That's risky, said Rachel Mutrux, director of the Telehealth Network. Untrained interpreters could misunderstand medical words.

"They don't only interpret verbatim, they watch for cultural signs," Lopresti said. "Someone may say she's being punished by the spirits, for some (sort of misbehavior) and our interpreters are prepared for that.

"They can look at body language, hear cultural differences that the (medical people) might miss."

So about a year ago, LAMP accepted the invitation to blend with the Telehealth Network to create the Missouri Telehealth Interpretation Project.

A two-year grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health supports the fledgling project.

The grant runs out in October of 2010.

Dana Hughes, with the University of Missouri Institute of Public Policy, hopes that will accelerate as more equipment is installed and more people know about the program.

About 48 of the state's 114 counties are connected, said Mutrux of Telehealth. That will expand to 58 by the end of the year, she said.

"We're so happy with this," said Fleming of the Rodgers Health Center. "Access to interpreters gives us more time with families, more time with disease and wellness."