(upbeat music)
Welcome to Conversations With the Winners.
Today, our conversation is with Susy Molano.
When it comes to healthcare interpreters,
Susy is dedicated to the work of systems change.
Welcome, Susy.
Thank you very much.
Pleasure to be here.
So start us off with your story
about how you came to this work
of systems change when it comes to healthcare interpreters.
The association was born nearly 12 years ago
and one of the issues that really target the creation
of the association was that we have a lot
of refugees coming to Oregon.
So I noticed that these families came
and they didn't have enough interpreters to
be able to take care of them.
So for that reason, I, with actually some of my coworkers
we started talking about the possibility
of creating an association
in order to be able to help the interpreters,
to train the interpreters, and also to look
for more individuals that were able to attend all the needs
of the refugees and the asylees
and the immigrants that were coming to the hospitals.
So basically the work that we do is to
grow and improve the pool
of interpreters available in the regions and in Oregon.
So, first of all, we do outreach in the communities.
We train interpreters,
also, we provide the classes for them to be prepared
to take the national test.
Plus we help them to be able to find jobs,
and we are also working with the state legislation
in order to provide better resources for them.
And also we want the creation
of a licensing board for healthcare interpreters.
Susy, what are your thoughts about health equity
and what are the issues for the community you serve?
Well, I believe that the best description
of health equity is the one that is provided
for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
And I am going to take the time to read it.
Basically it's "Everyone has a fair
and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible
regardless of the social position in the community."
So language access is one
of the social determinants of health.
So exactly this is what we are doing to try to
break the barriers in order
for the limited English proficient patients
to be able to communicate with the healthcare providers
and to have the best health they are able to have.
Susy, can you tell us what drives your work?
First of all,
I believe that it's extremely sad for people not
to be able to communicate the problems that they have,
the symptoms that they have, and not to be able to
understand what is the plan that the doctors have for them
and what are the recommendations.
And for that reason not to be able to get better
and to later on
have more pain, chronic diseases, hospitalizations
and that is not good for the communities.
I want for the interpreters to be considered
a very essential and important part of the medical team.
But in order for the medical team to see interpreters
as partners, language access partners,
the interpreters, we need to raise the bar.
We need to raise training.
We need to raise skills.
My vision is for healthcare interpreters to be able to be trained
and to be supported in order for them to be the best interpreters possible.
We are the voice of our patients, but we don't have a voice.
This is what we are doing, having a voice.
Susy, your work involves bringing together
partners to increase the quality
and consistency in the field of healthcare interpreting.
Tell us a little bit more about that.
Interpreters are, maybe 98% of interpreters,
are independent contractors
so they don't have benefits, they don't have any type of
care for them.
They work with different agencies
and they have to juggle appointments
and they have to go from one place to the other.
So if we have clear understanding about that,
we see that we need all together with
the health care providers, with the agencies, with the state,
with the coordinated care organizations
in order to be able to really, really put our heads together
and see how we can help each other
I'm sure that there were many challenges along the way.
Can you share some of the lessons learned with us today?
I just want for people to understand
that being an interpreter is not,
it's a passion,
it's a career, it's a mission.
It's something that we do for our communities
because being an interpreter is not an easy work.
You have to be very compassionate.
You have sometimes to be very resilient
because you learn things that are very sad
from people that are receiving diagnosis
that you will never want for them to receive
for people, with children, with special needs.
And you somehow get involved with this,
with the problems and the needs and the
suffering that these communities have.
Susy, thank you for your hard work
and for your dedication,
and for helping us understand the importance
of an inclusive healthcare team
and congratulations on your
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Equity.
Thank you very much.
Really appreciate it.
Thank you for joining us for this conversation,
and you are invited
to more conversations with the 2020 winners
of the RWJF Award for Health Equity.
And you can learn more
about all of the winners at RWJF.org.
I'm Jacinta Gauda, and thank you for watching.