Multicultural Utica: Real Problems, Real Solutions

More than 13,000 people who live in Oneida and Herkimer counties cannot understand English well enough to communicate with a physician. Potentially dangerous medical scenarios result when friends, untrained employees and even young children try to interpret for non-English speakers. To address this issue, the Multicultural Association of Medical Interpreters (MAMI) of Central New York will present a theatrical skit, "Can My Seven-Year Old Interpret for Me in the Delivery Room?" on Wednesday, April 12, 4:15 p.m. in the Red Pit of the Kirner Johnson building at Hamilton College. The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the college's Kirkland Project.

The skit dramatizes problems faced by non-English speakers on a visit to the doctor's office and then demonstrates one solution available in the Utica area: the use of trained medical interpreters. Presenters include Cornelia Brown, Ph.D. executive director of MAMI and others medical interpreters and volunteers.

Brown has degrees from Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley. From 1994-1995 she taught comparative literature and is currently a Scholar in Residence at Hamilton College. She has published on medical interpreting in professional journals and is secretary of the National Council on Interpretation in Health Care. She is a Russian medical interpreter and a licensed medial interpreting trainer.

MAMI is a grassroots, non-profit organization, located in Utica and dedicated to ensuring equal access to health care for speakers of limited English. MAMI offers professional medical interpreting; medical translating of patient-oriented documents; training in interpreting and translating; in-services for doctors and nurses; community outreach; and advocacy to health care organizations about applicable laws.