"THE MENTAL BURDEN WAS HEAVIER"

Continuing from the previous post about PALS for Health, which is a non-profit language service program which provides translation services for English proficient residents of the Los Angeles County, Ms. Yong-Na Wu was interviewed in 2008 regarding her experiences with receiving medical care.

Ms. Wu, who learned she had breast cancer after coming to the United States, found it difficult to receive proper medical attention because she had trouble communicating with the doctor.  Whatever he said, she could not understand, but when she tried to ask questions, he could not understand her.  Because of this, Ms. Wu would find herself "wait[ing] [a] very long time just for a prescription".  With the help of PALS, she was able to communicate with the doctor through her translator, Ms. Yang, and was able to receive the proper treatment to cure her cancer.

One statement that Ms. Wu made during this interview:

"Basically, what my condition was wasn't clear to me.  So whether things were good or bad, I didn't understand.  The mental burden was heavier."

really stuck out to me because of the fact that, for the patients, it isn't the sickness that is the worst part, it is the confusion of not knowing what is going on that weighs most heavily on them.  The fact that they really do not know what is going on scares them more than whatever pains they may be receiving from their illness.

The effects of the language barrier go much deeper than a lack of communication.  The language barrier causes patients to feel uneasy and can perhaps cause them to worry more (potentially making themselves even sicker) because they feel that they are sick but cannot express their pains or understand their symptoms when they go to the doctor expecting to be cured.

Therefore, the use of translators becomes more important than simply acting as a multilingual pony express relaying information from English to Chinese and back again.  The use of translators brings about a sense of mental stability and peace to the patients because they are able to understand their condition and know the reasons as to why they are feeling what they are feeling.  More than just language, it is the duty of translators to act as calm harbingers of clarity.  Through this clarity of understanding their symptoms and what they can do to get better, the patients are able to focus less on their lingual frustrations and instead focus more on the healing process.