This 90-minute recorded webinar is available now and has been approved for continuing education units.  See below for more details.   

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Recorded Webinar Featuring Highlights from "Interpreter Advocacy in Healthcare Encounters: A Closer Look" Paper!

This webinar presents highlights from the paper of the same name "Interpreter Advocacy in Healthcare Encounters: A Closer Look". We explore the sociological definition of role to understand the place of advocacy within the healthcare interpreter’s scope of practice. We examine what makes an intervention advocacy as opposed to something else. We discuss the questions to ask oneself when determining whether interpreter advocacy is required and if so may be the most appropriate and necessary intervention, as well as interventions that will avoid the need for advocacy.  We wrap up by discussing a scenario with variations and walk through the decision-making process questions to see whether other interventions may avoid the need for advocacy, or if advocacy is required. 

After viewing the webinar you should be able to:

• Understand the interpreter role from a sociological framework
• Identify which interventions are acts of advocacy and which are not
• Understand how to use interventions that are not advocacy to avoid the need for advocacy
• Assess and determine when the patient’s physical and/or emotional well-being is at risk making advocacy appropriate and necessary
• Be prepared to advocate effectively when needed

About the Presenters:

Analía C. Lang, BA, CHI-Spanish

Analía Lang, BA, CHI™-Spanish, acquired her BA from Indiana University with a concentration in training, development and communications. She has been a medical interpreter since 2005, has trained healthcare interpreters for more than 12 years, and is licensed to train The Community Interpreter International curriculum. At the present time, Analía serves as a Martti by UpHealth training specialist and subject matter expert in language access, quality, and training for remote interpreters. Analía has developed webinars, workshops, and training curricula for the interpreting community. She has been a presenter at several conferences, has contributed to The Remote Interpreter book (a collaboration between Cross-Cultural Communications and other organizations), and serves as a member of the NCIHC Standards and Training Committee and its National Standards of Practice work group. Analía has a deep passion for empowering and inspiring others to flourish and have an impact in this remarkable interpreting profession.

Jane Crandall Kontrimas, M.S., CoreCHI™

Jane Crandall Kontrimas CoreCHI™, M.S., Interpreter Training Coordinator, has been a Russian Interpreter at Beth Israel Hospital—now Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center—since 1979.   In 1985 she co-hosted the first meeting of what became the MMIA (Massachusetts Medical Interpreter Association), now called the IMIA (International Medical Interpreter Association). She co-authored the first MMIA Code of Ethics for interpreters in 1987 and chaired the MMIA Standards of Practice Committee while the “Standards of Practice for Medical Interpreters” was developed and published in 1995. She chaired the Certification Committee of the MMIA until December 2007. In 2016 she was a CCHI (Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters) subject matter expert for Job Task Analysis review. From 2018-2020 she was a Director of the NCIHC (National Council on Interpreting in Health Care) and a member of the National Standards of Practice (NSoP) work group of the NCIHC Standards and Training Committee (STC).  She continues expressing her passion for interpreting by training interpreters, medical students, medical faculty and social workers, and others.

Maria-Paz Beltran Avery, PhD

Maria-Paz Beltran Avery, PhD, began her work in health care interpreting over 25 years ago when she directed a federally-funded project to develop a college level certificate program to prepare bilingual adults as healthcare interpreters. Through this project, she collaborated with the Massachusetts Medical Interpreters Association to develop standards of practice for the profession. Published in 1996, the Medical Interpreting Standards of Practice were adopted by the MMIA as its official standards of practice and has continued to be used by healthcare professionals to date. As a member of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC), she has written a number of position papers including one on the role of the health care interpreter. As a member of the Standards, Training, and Certification Committee (STC) of the NCIHC, she was involved in the development of the National Code of Ethics for Interpreters in Health Care and was the primary author of the accompanying document “Understanding the National Code of Ethics for Interpreters in Health Care.”  Through the STC, she was also involved in developing the National Standards of Practice for Interpreters in Health Care and the National Standards for Healthcare Interpreter Training Programs.  She was also involved in early discussions and pilot projects focusing on the assessment of healthcare interpreting skills that eventually led to the creation of certification for healthcare interpreters. She has presented her work on medical interpreting at conferences, both national and international.  In 2015, she received NCIHC’s Language Access Champion Award.