Limited English proficiency
(Dominio limitado del inglés)

On this page:

• Tools (Herramientas)
• Funding (Financiamiento)
• Publications (Publicaciones)
• Organizations (Organismos)

Tools
(Herramientas)

• Hablamos Juntos
  Mission is to improve communication between health care providers and their patients with limited English proficiency. To accomplish this they develop affordable models that will help doctors, hospitals and their staff care for a changing patient population by funding ten demonstration sites in regions with established or emerging fast-growing Latino populations. Also includes resources on interpreter services, signage, and developing Spanish language materials.
  Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• English Language Learner Resources
  A variety of Limited-English Proficient (LEP) resources that include assessment tools, documents, brochures, case decisions, and FAQs.
  Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Education
• Language Assistance Self-Assessment and Planning Tool for Recipients of Federal Financial Assistance
  Assists organizations that receive Federal financial assistance in their efforts to ensure that program goals and objectives address meaningful access for all of the people they serve, including those who are limited-English proficient.
  Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Justice
• Limited English Proficiency: A Federal Interagency Website
  Promotes a positive and cooperative understanding of the importance of language access to federal programs and federally assisted programs. Acts as a clearinghouse, providing information, tools, and technical assistance regarding Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and language services for federal agencies, recipients of federal funds, users of federal programs and federally assisted programs.
  Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Justice
• Complaint Form for the USDOJ, Civil Rights Div., Coordination and Review Section
  Contains several formats of the complaint form used by the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division and their contact information. The USDOJ will review discrimination against persons with limited English proficiency complaints and refer those complaints to the appropriate agency.
  Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Justice
• The Cross Cultural Health Care Program
  Serves as a bridge between communities and health care institutions to ensure full access to quality health care that is culturally and linguistically appropriate. Provides a combination of cultural competency trainings, interpreter trainings, research projects, and community coalition building.
  Sponsoring organization: Cross Cultural Health Care Program
• Physician Toolkit and Curriculum: Resources to Implement Cross-Cultural Clinical Practice Guidelines for Medicaid Practitioners
  This toolkit aids healthcare providers in the practical application of the Cross-Cultural Clinical Practice Guidelines. It introduces the basic fundamentals of cross-cultural practice and offers steps and processes essential to delivering quality care to culturally diverse populations.
  Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of Minority Health
• Dictionary of Health Related Terms, 3rd Edition (English - Spanish)
  An instrument for health care personnel and other professionals working with the Latino population in the United States. Purpose is to strengthen communication between Spanish-speaking populations and the health workers serving them, and facilitate dialogue by reducing cultural and linguistic barriers.
  Sponsoring organization: California Office of Binational Border Health
• A Guide to Choosing and Adapting Culturally and Linguistically Competent Health Promotion Materials
  Provides guidance on how to assure that health promotion materials reflect the principles and practices of cultural and linguistic competence.
  Sponsoring organization: National Center for Cultural Competence
• Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and Hispanic Worker Initiative
  Provides a variety of resources regarding multilingual and multicultural strategies for serving job seekers and workers with limited English proficiency.
  Sponsoring organization: Employment and Training Administration
• Civil Rights Division's Coordination and Review Section (en Espanol)
  Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Justice
• Multilingual Glossary of Technical and Popular Medical Terms in Nine European Languages
  A multilingual glossary of technical and popular medical terms in nine European Languages: Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
• Learning Services
  A list of documents and reports on language services in health care settings and people with limited English proficiency.
  Sponsoring organization: Access Project
• Office for Civil Rights, Headquarters and Regional Addresses
  Lists the contact information for the main Office of Civil Rights and the regional Offices of Civil Rights. Accepts complaints regarding Federal civil rights laws that protect the rights of all persons in the United States to receive health and human services without discrimination based on race, color, national origin, disability, age, and in some cases, sex and religion. This includes LEP persons who are not provided language access in an appropriate manner.
  Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Speaking Together for Better Care: How Effective Medical Interpretation Can Improve Quality of Care
  This video takes you to Cambridge Hospital in Massachusetts and to Phoenix Children's Hospital, where medically trained interpreter services are making a critical contribution to improving safety and clinical outcomes for patients who speak or understand little English.
• Guidelines for Accessing Interpreter Services
  Provides a list of procedures for accessing interpreters in a timely and cost-effective manner.
• Culturally Specific Patient Health Information for non-English speakers
  Librarian recommended reference sites for culturally specific patient health information.
• Office of Minority Health Resource Center
  An information service that provides publications, articles, and database searches on minority health topics. Can be contacted by phone at 1.800.444.6472, or by e-mail at info@omhrc.gov.
  Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Speaking Together
  A national program aimed at improving the quality and availability of health care language services for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). Hospitals pilot new performance measures and test techniques for reducing health care disparities associated with language barriers.
  Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Office of Minority Health Regional Minority Health Consultants (RMHCs)
  A locator map of the Office of Minority Health Regional Minority Health Consultants (RMHCs) who work to build partnerships with consumers and professionals working on minority health issues at the regional, state and community level.
  Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of Minority Health
• Patient Education Resources All Languages
  List of links to patient education materials and brochures available in a variety of different languages.
  Sponsoring organization: University of Washington
• Consumer Health Brochures in Multiple Languages
  Electronic access to over 200 health education brochures in 24 different languages.
  Sponsoring organization: Utah Department of Health
• Other Language Resources
  Provides links to multilingual materials on health related topics.
  Sponsoring organization: National Library of Medicine
• Health Information Translations
  Provides culturally appropriate materials to promote health education and wellness among Limited English Proficiency (LEP) populations.
  Sponsoring organization: Ohio State University
• Dental Resource Net: Patient Education Archive
  Lists patient education handouts in 17 foreign languages that focus on dental health and care.
• Maternal and Child Health Library: Non-English Materials and Resources
  An online catalog of maternal and child health materials and resources for consumers and professionals in numerous languages other than English.
  Sponsoring organization: National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health
• Ask Me 3
  Provides information about health literacy for health care providers, patients, employers, and the media and includes brochures in English and Spanish. Lists questions to ask a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist and tips to better understand personal health.
  Sponsoring organization: Pfizer
• National Resource Center on Advancing Emergency Preparedness for Culturally Diverse Communities
  An information exchange portal designed to facilitate communication, networking and collaboration to improve preparedness and eliminate disparities for racially and ethnically diverse communities in public health emergencies.
  Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of Minority Health
• Interpreter Associations
  A list of local and regional interpreting associations with a special focus on healthcare interpreting.
  Sponsoring organization: National Council on Interpreting in Health Care
• Office for Civil Rights: Limited English Proficiency (LEP) - Resources
  Includes documents pertaining to persons with Limited English Proficiency (LEP).
  Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• New Americans Health Information Portal (NAHIP)
  Serves as an Internet portal to identified quality multi-lingual health education documents and as a receptacle for health documents created by Heartland's Refugee Health Programs.
  Sponsoring organization: Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights

Funding
(Financiamiento)

• California Endowment Grant Programs
  Grants to expand access to affordable, quality health care for the underserved and to improve the health status of all Californians.
      Geographic Coverage: California
      Application Deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis
      Sponsor: California Endowment

Publications
(Publicaciones)

• Addressing Language Access Issues in Your Practice: A Toolkit for Physicians and Their Staff Members
  Discusses the importance of addressing the language access needs of a changing patient population. Provides tools and resources for developing skills to facilitate language access.
  Author(s): Cynthia E. Roat
  Date: 2005
  Format: PDF
  
• Certification of Health Care Interpreters: A Primer, a Status Report and Considerations for National Certification
  Provides an overview of certification issues for health care interpreters in the United States.
  Author(s): Cynthia Roat
  Sponsoring organization: California Endowment
  Date: 09 / 2006
  Format: PDF
  
• Closing the Health Disparity Gap in New Mexico: A Roadmap for Grantmaking (Executive Summary)
  Provides information and recommendations necessary to be aware of, and respond to the health rights and needs of culturally and demographically diverse peoples and communities of New Mexico.
  Author(s): Lisa Cacari Stone, Deborah Boldt
  Date: 05 / 2006
  Format: PDF
  
• Cultural Competence Works: Using Cultural Competence to Improve the Quality of Health Care for Diverse Populations and Add Value to Managed Care Arrangements
  Identifies and describes successful programs that address the needs of underserved, culturally diverse communities, including interpreter services, cultural competence training for staff, targeted outreach programs, and other culturally appropriate interventions.
  Sponsoring organization: Health Resources and Services Administration
  Date: 2001
  Format: PDF
  
• Don't Get Disconnected: 10 Steps to Bridge the Language Divide
  Ten steps for working with limited English-speaking patients and medical interpreters for more effective communication over the phone.
  Author(s): Jeanette Anders
  Date: 09 / 2006
  Format: HTML
  
• Executive Order 13166, Limited English Proficiency Resource Document: Tips and Tools from the Field
  Lists many of the tips, tools, and practices identified in the DOJ surveys of court personnel, social service providers, police departments, 911 call centers, and several DOJ components, to determine how these organizations have responded to the call for meaningful access for LEP individuals.
  Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Justice
  Date: 09 / 2004
  Format: HTML
  
• Executive Order 13166: Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency
  The Executive Order that requires Federal agencies to examine the services they provide, identify any need for services to those with limited English proficiency (LEP), and develop and implement a system to provide those services so LEP persons can have meaningful access to them.
  Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Justice
  Date: 08 / 2000
  Format: PDF
  
• A Guide for Advancing Family-Centered and Culturally and Linguistically Competent Care
  Discusses ways in which family-centered care and cultural and linguistic competence can be integrated to support and sustain a community-based system of services that provide high quality of care to families who have children and youth with special health care needs.
  Sponsoring organization: National Center for Cultural Competence
  Format: PDF
  
• Guidelines on Bureau of Substance Abuse Services Interpreter Services
  A uniform set of guidelines and recommendations for interpreting in substance abuse practice settings.
  Date: 2005
  Format: PDF
  
• Health Care Language Services Implementation Guide
  A guide to help healthcare organizations implement effective language access services (LAS) to meet the needs of their patients with limited English proficiency (LEP), thereby increasing their access to health care. Requires registration.
  Sponsoring organization: Health Resources and Services Administration
  Date: 2007
  Format: HTML
  
• Holding Health Plans Accountable: The Provision of Culturally and Linguistically Competent Services by Health Plans Participating in the Healthy Families Program
  A report generated from a survey completed by participants in the Health Families Program of California to gauge health plan compliance with the culturally and linguistically competent service requirements.
  Sponsoring organization: California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
  Date: 03 / 2006
  Format: PDF
  
• Hospital Language Services for Patients With Limited English Proficiency: Results From a National Survey
  This report describes current practices, common barriers, and the specific resources and tools needed to provide language services to patients with LEP. The results of the survey will inform federal policymakers, practitioners, providers, and others of the issues and potential solutions facing hospitals as they work to improve language services for all patients with LEP.
  Author(s): Romana Hasnain-Wynia, Julie Yonek, Debra Pierce, Ray Kang, Cynthia Hedges Greising
  Date: 10 / 2006
  Format: PDF
  
• Hospitals, Language, and Culture: A Snapshot of the Nation
  A qualitative cross-sectional study designed to provide a snapshot of how 60 hospitals across the country are providing health care to culturally and linguistically diverse patient populations.
  Author(s): Amy Wilson-Stronks, Erica Galvez
  Sponsoring organization: Joint Commission
  Date: 2007
  Format: PDF
  
• How Race/Ethnicity, Immigration Status, and Language Affect Health Insurance Coverage, Access to and Quality of Care Among the Low-Income Population (Full Report)
  Discusses the roles that race, language and citizenship status play in insurance coverage, access to health care and quality of health care, particularly for the low-income Latino population.
  Author(s): Leighton Ku, Timothy Waidmann
  Sponsoring organization: Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured
  Date: 08 / 2003
  Format: PDF
  
• Language Access Solutions for OBGYN Medical Practices
  Provides policy and practice recommendations to promote the use of language access practices that ensure interpretation, confidentiality, adherence to medical ethics standards, while discouraging the use of inappropriate methods.
  Date: 2007
  Format: PDF
  
• Language Services Resource Guide for Health Care Providers
  A guide to aid health care providers, administrators, interpreters, translators, and others in improving language access and improving health care for their clients and patients.
  Author(s): Alyssa Sampson
  Sponsoring organization: Cross Cultural Health Care Program
  Date: 10 / 2006
  Format: PDF
  
• Limited English Proficiency, Primary Language at Home, and Disparities in Children's Health Care: How Language Barriers Are Measured Matters
  Summarizes the Commonwealth Fund study of the same title and concludes that LEP is more useful than language spoken at home in gauging the impact of language barriers in children's health care.
  Author(s): Glenn Flores, Milagros Abreu, Sandra C. Tomany-Korman
  Sponsoring organization: Commonwealth Fund
  Date: 2005
  Format: PDF
  
• MedlinePlus and the Challenge of Low Health Literacy: Findings From the Colonias Project
  Discusses the Colonias Project, an 18-month outreach project with the goal of increasing the usage of MedlinePlus and MedlinePlus en español and overcoming associated problems with health literacy in low-income, medically underserved Hispanic communities (colonias) along the Texas-Mexico border, where residents primarily speak Spanish.
  Author(s): Cynthia A. Olney, Debra G. Warner, Greysi Reyna, Fred B. Wood, Elliot R. Siegel
  Sponsoring organization: Medical Library Association
  Journal citation: Journal of the Medical Library Association Volume: 95 Issue: 1 Pages: 31-39
  Date: 01 / 2007
  Format: HTML
  
• National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care: Executive Summary
  A summary with list of the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care as issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health (OMH) to ensure that all people entering the health care system receive equitable and effective treatment in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner. These standards are proposed as a means to correct inequities that currently exist in the provision of health services and to make these services more responsive to the individual needs of all patients/consumers.
  Sponsoring organization: Health Resources and Services Administration
  Date: 03 / 2001
  Format: PDF
  
• National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care: Final Report
  Provides a list and discussion of the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care as issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health (OMH) to ensure that all people entering the health care system receive equitable and effective treatment in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner. These standards are proposed as a means to correct inequities that currently exist in the provision of health services and to make these services more responsive to the individual needs of all patients/consumers.
  Sponsoring organization: Health Resources and Services Administration
  Date: 03 / 2001
  Format: PDF
  
• National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS)
  A list of the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards as developed by the National Project Advisory Committee, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office of Minority Health. These standards are directed at health care organizations; however, individual providers are also encouraged to use the standards to make their practices more culturally and linguistically accessible.
  Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of Minority Health
  Date: 2000
  Format: HTML
  
• A Patient-Centered Guide to Implementing Language Access Services (LAS) in Healthcare Organizations (Executive Summary)
  A summary of full document of same title intended to help healthcare organizations implement effective language access services to meet the needs of their limited English proficient patients (LEP), and increase their access to health care.
  Date: 09 / 2005
  Format: PDF
  
• A Patient-Centered Guide to Implementing Language Access Services in Healthcare Organizations
  Helps healthcare organizations implement effective language access services to meet the needs of their limited English proficient patients (LEP), and increase their access to health care.
  Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  Date: 09 / 2005
  Format: PDF
  
• Paying for Language Services in Medicare: Preliminary Options and Recommendations
  This report discusses how the federal government could design payment systems for language services in Medicare. It reviews information about current approaches to pay for language services and offers recommendations as a starting point for change in payment systems.
  Author(s): Leighton Ku
  Date: 10 / 2006
  Format: PDF
  
• Providing Language Services in State and Local Health-Related Benefits Offices: Examples from the Field
  The National Health Law Program visited and conducted telephone interviews and surveys with Medicaid and other public programs offices to assess effective models of providing language services to people who are LEP.
  Author(s): Mara Youdelman, Jane Perkins, Jamie D. Brooks, Deborah Reid
  Sponsoring organization: Commonwealth Fund
  Date: 01 / 2007
  Format: PDF
  
• Serving Patients with Limited English Proficiency: Results of a Community Health Center Survey
  Discusses the challenges of serving people with limited English proficiency (LEP) at health care safety net organizations.
  Sponsoring organization: National Association of Community Health Centers
  Date: 06 / 2008
  Format: PDF
  
• Southwest Border KIDS COUNT Pocket Guide: A Snapshot of Children Living on the Southwest Border
  Presents the characteristics of the border population state-by-state and county-by-county with a focus on the children. Includes information on: Population and demographic characteristics, Health, Parental employment, Education, Language fluency, Foreign-born status and time of arrival, and Poverty rates.
  Sponsoring organization: Annie E. Casey Foundation
  Date: 2005
  Format: PDF
  
• State Approaches to Covering Medical Interpreter Services in Medicaid and SCHIP Programs
  Summarizes the existing programs and what states have done to address the issues regarding medical interpreter services.
  Sponsoring organization: Connecticut Health Foundation
  Date: 04 / 2007
  Format: PDF
  
• Teaching Cultural Competence in Health Care: A Review of Current Concepts, Policies and Practices
  Reports the findings of an environmental scan that will serve to inform the development of Cultural Competence Curriculum Modules (CCCM) for family physicians. This work is supported by the Office of Minority Health (OMH) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and represents the first effort to create such training materials at the national level.
  Date: 03 / 2002
  Format: PDF
  
• Transforming the Face of Health Professions Through Cultural & Linguistic Competence Education: The Role of the HRSA Centers of Excellence
  A compendium providing practical guidance in the form of strategies, tools, and resources for HRSA Centers of Excellence implementing and integrating cultural and linguistic competency content and methods into existing academic programs. It also provides guidance for evaluating cultural and linguistic competency efforts.
  Date: 03 / 2005
  Format: HTML
  
• The Unique Challenges to the Well-Being of California’s Border Kids
  Presents indicators of children’s health, education, and economic wellbeing for communities on the California side of the California-Mexico border
  Author(s): Heather Barondess, Corey Newhouse
  Sponsoring organization: KIDS COUNT
  Date: 06 / 2007
  Format: PDF
  
• Universal Health Symbols Provide Direction for Many in Hospitals
  The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Hablamos Juntos worked with the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) to develop and test 28 health symbols. These new symbols remove language barriers and provide better access to care.
  Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  Date: 12 / 2005
  Format: HTML
  

Organizations
(Organismos)

• California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
  Works to ensure that all Californians have access to quality health care and can live healthy lives.
• Cross Cultural Health Care Program
  Serves as a bridge between communities and health care institutions to ensure full access to quality health care that is culturally and linguistically appropriate.
• DiversityRx
  Promotes language and cultural competence to improve the quality of health care for minority, immigrant, and ethnically diverse communities.
• Healthy Roads Media
  Contains free health education materials in a number of languages and a variety of formats. Being developed to study the value of these formats in providing health information for diverse populations in a variety of settings.
• National Council on Interpreting in Health Care
  A multidisciplinary organization based in the United States whose mission is to promote culturally competent professional health care interpreting as a means to support equal access to health care for individuals with limited English proficiency.
• Refugee Health Information Network
  A national collaborative partnership, managed by refugee health professionals, whose objective is to provide quality multilingual, health information resources for those providing care to resettled refugees and asylees.