Language Access Initiatives

As a safety net hospital, Natividad services Salinas Valley towns along Hwy. 101 – including Gonzales, Soledad, Greenfield, King City – that are home to migrant agricultural workers and hospitality workers who are 60-90% Hispanic/Latino. A growing subset of these workers are of indigenous origin from Mexico or Central America who do not speak English or Spanish.

In Monterey County, thousands of newly arrived workers from the Mexican state of Oaxaca speak dialects of Mixtec, Zapotec, Trique, Chatino, Nauhatl and Mayan. It is estimated that 38% of newly arrived farmworkers living in the US less than two years are indigenous. According to the Indigenous Farmworker Study, there are 21,000 people from Oaxaca living in the Salinas Valley.  

A priority at Natividad is to address this growing population – patients who speak indigenous languages, including Zapotec, Mixteco and Triqui – but do not speak English or Spanish. Like many patients at Natividad, they face barriers to accessing healthcare including low literacy; lack of transportation, childcare and health insurance; and poverty. This combination of characteristics, paired with limited access to health services, often results in fear and avoidance of services that could improve health and limit risks for other medical conditions.

Clear communication is crucial to providing effective healthcare. Qualified Medical Interpretation helps bridge the gap between healthcare providers who struggle to communicate complex medical information and patients with Limited English Proficiency (LEP).

Gifts from The Agricultural Leadership Council, The Women's Fund of Monterey County – a field of interest fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County, and other foundations and donors have supported Natividad in establishing its medical interpreter program.

Thank you!
 

For more information about Natividad’s Language Access Program,
please call Victor Sosa at (831) 796-1612.

 

LANGUAGE ACCESS INITIATIVES:

Medical Interpretation Program

  

Latino USA NPR’s The California Report NPR’s State of the Health Blog       Qualified Medical Interpretation Program Meet our Interpreters – Language Access Services Angelica Isidro's Story – Medical Interpreter

 

LANGUAGE ACCESS INITIATIVES:

Video Gallery
 

Triqui Documentary - An Interview with Jason and Merindy Morgenson	Triqui Documentary - An Interview with Linguist Bruce Hollenbach	Triqui Documentary - A Profile of Dr. Casildo Sandoval Cruz	The Ulysses Syndrome