by Kevin Burton
Today's post is kind of a follow-up to yesterday's story about the best countries for expatriates.
The BBC did that story, based on a survey of people who had left their home country and settled elsewhere. My wife read it and asked "What about health care?" The story didn't mention health care at all.
Good question by her.
In my 20s I lived for a time in Puebla, Mexico. Had you asked me back then, are you immortal, of course I would have said no. But I sure behaved as if I were. Health care never entered my mind at all.
I did speak Spanish a little bit, but I had, and still have, no idea what number to dial in Mexico for an emergency.
The language aspect was great fun for me. Some Spanish I knew, some things I picked up by context, some by cognates (words that are almost the same in both languages).
But what if I had had a medical emergency? Even if I reached somebody by phone, how would I tell the medical people, specifically, what was wrong with me, armed only with my fake-it-till-you-make-it Spanish?
Americans are famously grumpy about people moving here and not learning English. I am less so, but have always thought it, not just lazy, but crazy, not to learn the language being spoken where you live.
"When you dial 911, every second counts," wrote reporter Trace Salzbrenner of the Wichita Beacon. "Be prepared to give your address, the nature of your emergency and — your language to the 911 dispatchers."
"If you don't speak English, be ready to wait. "
"The Sedgwick County emergency response system relies on third-party translation services to handle foreign language calls. Connecting a call to somebody who speaks something other than English can add 20 to 30 seconds."
"Five seconds is our connection goal," said Elora Forshee, director of emergency communications in Sedgwick County. "But sometimes it can take 20 or 30 seconds for us to find a translator, especially when it's late at night or the language is uncommon."
"Thirty seconds is a long time, she said, when someone's not breathing, when a heart has stopped, when paramedics are needed at a car accident or a person is bleeding from a gunshot wound."
"I can only imagine being (a refugee or immigrant) in a country where I did not speak the language and how frazzled I would be in general," Forshee said, "let alone while I am experiencing this traumatic event."
"Last year, Sedgwick County fielded more than 1,000 calls to 911 in languages no one at the Sedgwick County Emergency Communications Center could speak, she said."
"In those tense moments, emergency dispatchers use third-party translation services called language lines to help determine the emergency and the help needed. The two language lines used by Sedgwick County cover more than 250 languages.
"However, these services come with flaws, and like many industries now — including Sedgwick County's emergency services — the language lines face staff shortages.
"A report earlier this year by (local CBS affiliate) KWCH found that about half of calls to 911 in Sedgwick County are not immediately answered by a person, due to staffing shortages. The average wait time for those placed on hold is five seconds, according to the television station report. "
"Roughly one in 14 people in Wichita say they speak English less than "very well."
"Discussion of increasing pay for bilingual employees to boost recruitment stalled earlier this year. Sheena Schmutz, Sedgwick County's chief human resources officer, said that the issue has not been raised since those early budget meetings. "
"Yeni Silva-Renteria, executive director of the International Rescue Committee office in Wichita, regularly hears about long wait times from the refugees she works with. She's been a consultant to the county looking for solutions."
"Oftentimes, when these people are calling 911 it's because they … really are in an emergency," she said.
"Silva-Renteria said it's already hard to get refugees to call 911 because many come from places where they saw government as a threat rather than a form of rescue."
"Long calls and wait times make it harder.
"Being able to literally have that translation of what the crisis is, and (to) be able to provide that information to whoever is responding with the accurate information in a timely manner," she said, "is life and death."
"Data from Sedgwick County's emergency communications office show the languages most commonly used by callers other than English were Spanish, Vietnamese, Lao and Arabic."
"Hispanic and Latino people make up nearly 15 percent of Sedgwick County residents, or more than 75,000 people. People of Vietnamese descent make up 2 percent of Sedgwick County residents, or roughly 8,500 people."
"Sedgwick County 911 has eight bilingual staffers able to speak both English and Spanish. That's not enough, according to Forshee, but it's better than having none. None of the call center staff speaks Vietnamese. "
I have been told that parent information comes from Wichita schools in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. It is very common in my area to see bilingual English-Spanish product packaging.
Saltine crackers are one thing, 911 emergency response is another.
No comments:
Post a Comment