Main Room Notes

Language Access Work Group

Notes from 

Meeting 2 Main Room

August 8, 2023

SUMMARY OF MEETING 2

Welcome and agenda review

Anita Maguire

Brief self-introductions

Participants

Review community agreements

Anita Maguire

Consolidated highlights from the last meeting’s breakout room discussions   

Malia Wallace-Mello

Breakout Room discussions

Breakout Room Facilitators and Participants   

Breakout Room discussion recap

Breakout Room Facilitators

Conclusion and next steps

Anita Maguire

 

Meeting 2 Participants

Patricia Alonzo Larysa House Cindy Roat, MPH
Angela Araque Carrie Huie Pascua Elsie Rodriguez Paz
Gabrielle Bachmeier Agata Ianturina Zenaida Rojas
Milena Calderari-Waldron Jarrod Irvin Mateo Rutherford
Vicky Chan Shelby Lambdin Rebecca Saldaña
Nadia Damchii Eliana Lobo Radu Smintina
Helen Eby Ruiqin Miao, PhD Quan Trần
Marguerite Friedlander, Esq. Fidelie Nawaj Yun-Mei Wang Wilborn
Sherri Fujita Hugo Nuñez James Wells
Zugey Garcia Casey Peplow Michael Woo
Luisa Gracia Jennifer Price Sandy Yang
Lynora Hirata Joana Ramos  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting 2 DSHS Support Staff

Sharon Armstrong, Breakout Room Facilitator
Adolfo Capestany, Breakout Room Facilitator
Herminia Esqueda, Breakout Room Facilitator
Scott Hubbell, Breakout Room Facilitator
Benjamin Lee, Zoom Host
PaKou Lee, Breakout Room Facilitator
Anita Maguire, Main Room Facilitator
Stacii McKeon, Breakout Room Facilitator
Malia Wallace-Mello, Project Manager

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WELCOME AND AGENDA REVIEW

The Main Room Facilitator introduced herself and the Zoom Host. She then gave a quick recap of the agenda. New participants were asked to introduce themselves.

 

COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS

The Main Room Facilitator reviewed the community agreements established during the first meeting:

  • Respect each other in action and speech.

  • Stay present.

  • Listen with an open mind.

  • Arrive prepared and ready to engage.

  • Consider your thoughts before speaking.

  • Honesty in all communication.

  • Contribute from your lived experience.

  • Clarify to avoid assumptions.

  • Plain speak as much as possible.

  • Avoid acronyms and complications.

  • Ask questions out of curiosity.

  • Use specific, and whenever possible, brief examples for clarity.

  • Be open to different cultural and linguistic modes of expression.

  • Respectful disagreement is ok.

 

Participants were thanked for accepting these agreements and holding themselves accountable to them as the group works together to develop understanding and propose recommendations.

 

CONSOLIDATED LIST OF WHAT WAS SHARED DURING MEETING ONE

The Project Manager reviewed a consolidated list of what participants said in the breakout rooms when asked the following questions during the last meeting: (1) Why is this work important to Washingtonians? (2) How do you think we reach our unifying goal in the most equitable, accessible, and financially reasonable way?

 

  • Standardize quality interpretive services through the certification process.

  • Prioritize universal testing that is high quality and accessible.

  • Ensure accessibility for all clients.

  • Avoid using family members as interpreters. Children may not have the capacity to understand the gravity of information being communicated.

  • Ensure equitable access for all including rare languages and indigenous communities.

  • Prioritize in person interpretation to ensure accurate interpretation of medical diagnosis.

  • Increase and/or right size State financial investment in interpreter testing/certification program.

  • Increase general capacity for certified medical interpreters to address increasing population of LEP clients.

  • Create positive impact on LEP people to thrive in society.

  • Increase access to opportunity for people who can speak more than one language to use their language skills to earn a living.

  • Mitigate the feelings of fear and shame of LEP people in Washington.

  • Address gaps in LEP client's cultural and linguistic understanding of medical terms through quality interpreter training.

  • Modernize current Interpreter certification system/program.

  • Look outside "western" and/or "American" standard for quality interpretation.

  • Include existing certified interpreters in skills training and testing development.

 

All participant comments will be considered as we develop the final recommendation. Participants were thanked for offering up their lived experience and expertise.

If participants would like to see a less consolidated version of the discussions, they are encouraged to check out the breakout room notes on the Meeting 1 of 6 page on the SSB 5304 Language Access Work Group website.

 

BREAKOUT ROOMS

Participants moved into breakout rooms to discuss this question: In what ways can the State of Washington support having more qualified medical interpreters?

For more information about the breakout room discussions, please see the notes from each of the six breakout rooms on the Meeting 2 of 6 page of the SSB 5304 Language Access Work Group site.

 

CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS

All participants were encouraged to complete the Getting to Know You form, which can be found on the SSB 5304 Language Access Work Group website. The work group website also contains resource documents and updates related to the work group. New information continues to be added to that site so please check for updates.

In preparation for the August 22 meeting, participants were asked to:

  1. Read the Preliminary Elements of Medical Interpreter Testing & Certification document, and

  2. Forward their draft recommendations to DSHS. Participants may either choose to share their draft recommendations by completing the Draft Recommendations form or by sending them to DSHS at workgroupssb5304@dshs.wa.gov.

 

Participants were encouraged to contact the work group Project Manager, Malia Wallace-Mello, if they have any questions.

Everyone was thanked.