Community offers Spanish-language parenting class

By Brandi Watters, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer

January 07, 2009 09:55 pm

— ANDERSON — Just five days after his banner birth on New Year’s Day, Oscar Pacheco Jr. was back at Community Hospital on Tuesday as his parents learned more about caring for him.
His mother, Florencia Murrillo, and his father, Oscar Pacheco, do not speak English and were just two of seven Hispanic parents learning about baby issues in a class specially designed for area parents who have not yet learned English.
The class is held on the first Tuesday evening of every month at the Pregnancy Plus department and offers tips about navigating the American health care system and parenthood to a growing population.
Katy Harrison-Troxell of Community said the class started as a breast-feeding support group for Spanish-speaking parents over a year ago.
Soon the staff realized that Hispanic patients faced a variety of challenges within the health system.
Janine Barajas, Community’s certified medical interpreter, said one of the first issues the staff faced was changing the minds of parents who’d been raised in Mexico.
She said many mothers believed that breast-feeding did not fully nourish newborn infants because a commercial campaign in Mexico urged mothers to feed a combination of milk and formula in the first months of life.
Staff soon learned that the cultural differences extended far beyond parenthood and baby issues.
Recent immigrants were bringing their children to the emergency room at the hospital for minor health issues like a cold, causing Barajas to spend most of her time interpreting for the Spanish-speaking parents.
This, she said, is because the emergency rooms in Mexico are actually clinics. In Mexico, colds are treated in such places, regardless of their severity.
Staff members also help the parents with insurance issues, tips on keeping babies healthy and putting in that ever-challenging car seat properly.
On Tuesday, Teri Schulz, a pediatrician, spoke to the small group of parents about recognizing and treating RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, a common problem for infants and small children.
Pregnant mother Juna Llamas, 26, of Anderson, said she prefers Community Hospital for medical care because of interpreters like Barajas. “I get the service in my language.”
Barajas said the hospital was ready to meet the needs of a population that shows no signs of slowing.
“It’s going to continue to grow,” she said. “We’ve gained a lot of patients just by providing the services in their language.”
The law now requires that health-care providers meet the language needs of patients.
When a foreign language is spoken by a patient and an interpreter is not available, Harrison-Troxell said, the hospital uses a language line, a paid service that provides interpreters over the phone for medical purposes.
In the past, immigrants and others who did not speak English relied on their American-born, English-speaking children to communicate with doctors. This, Barajas said, is dangerous, since children cannot be expected to understand complicated medical situations.
Under federal law, the weight of the language barrier now falls to the hospitals who use people like Barajas to make each patient visit easier.
“You just have to be able to bridge that gap,” she said.
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If you go
What: Parenting class in Spanish
Where: Pregnancy Plus at Community Hospital
When: 4:30 p.m. first Tuesday of each month
Cost: Free

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