Maine DOH to provide interpreters as needed

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The Morning Sentinel writes that the Department of Health and Human Services (DOH) of the US state Maine has resolved a 9-year-old complaint by pledging to provided trained interpreters at no cost to people with limited English skills who receive child welfare, Medicaid and other social services.

The aggreement reached end of March assures patients of their right to a spoken-language interpreter or written translation of documents. Also, the DOH intends to tighten its rules about using family members or non-professional interpreters inorder to  especially discourage the use of much debated child-interpreters.

Maria Cron, an immigration advocate and qualified Spanish-language interpreter who lives in Portland, said she has seen people denied language services within the last year. She said intake workers often try to make people understand English rather than provide an interpreter.

"What they do is yell," Maria Cron, an immigration advocate and qualified Spanish-language interpreter ciriticises the current practice, "Then they talk slow. Then they tell them to come back with an interpreter, which is like asking a handicapped person to bring their own ramp."

source: Morning Sentinel