As I was preparing for dental school and trying to serve in my community I served as a volunteer Spanish interpreter at an organization called Community Health Connect and helped patients needing lingual assistance when visiting the doctor, dentist, physical therapist, etc.
As an interpreter you sign up to cover an appointment at a certain time and place and are given the name of the patient and what kind of a visit they will be having. Then you show up at the doctor's office and wait for them to arrive. It seems as though this part of the process is always a guessing game, because you have never seen this person in your life.
I usually sat down in a chair and tried to keep an eye on everyone that came in and tried to look for someone of Spanish speaking background. One time though the person came in with out me noticing and was 15 minutes into their physical therapy session before I realized they were there. I have no idea how they got past me because I was watching vigilantly the entire time.
It was always a friendly experience of cracking a few jokes here or there to try to gain their trust and put them at ease. Overall I felt like it was a great service I was providing and felt good to know that I could help these people in some small way.
One problem I will mention though is that to get an appointment was always a challenge because the staff at Community Health Connect would send out a bulk email to every volunteer on the list saying that "we need help for such and such an appointment at such and such a time," then if you were able to work that time into your schedule you would simply respond to the email and they would put your name down for the appointment. Quite often though when I would reply to the email merely 5-10 minutes after it was sent, I would get and email back saying that the position had already been covered by someone else.
Long story short: if you want to volunteer as an interpreter with Community Health Connect you will have a great experience, especially if you're fast at replying to your emails and willing to miss school or work a little to help someone in need.
Here's a little note taken from their website:
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Mission
Our mission…. is to improve access to quality health and dental care for low-income uninsured men women and children. We accomplish this goal through the coordination of a Volunteer Provider Network, providing health education and by maximizing existing community resources.
History
In 1997 the collaborative group Healthy Utah Valley, a Healthy Communities Initiative in partnership with the United Way and others decided to develop a community-based medical program. Their purpose was to improve access to health care for the low-income, uninsured, to reduce unnecessary use of hospital emergency departments, and to help the community focus on preventive health measures. The collaboration included community agencies, government officials, hospitals, the local health department, and concerned community members. The vision was to help the medically underserved receive vital prevention and services before their health issues turned into emergencies. Community Health Connect, with their volunteer provider network emerged as a product of these collaborative efforts.
Funding to start the program was received from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in the form of a planning grant. The following year (1998) the program was awarded another grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, through their Local Initiatives Funding Partners program office. This time the grant was a four-year matching grant to promote the health access program.
The program, designed to help low-income, uninsured Utah County residents' access medical specialty care, was housed for several years under the umbrella of United Way. Early efforts led to a cadre of health care providers donating their services to clients in need. Local foundation partners provided grants to match the money from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and root the program in the state. All the while the program continued gathering providers, clinics, hospitals, ancillary care facilities and personnel across the county to join the program and donate services.
In 2002 the program moved under the purview of Mountainlands Community Health Center to better facilitate assistance for the medically underserved. An estimated 90% of the clients at Mountainlands are eligible for CHC specialty care services, so the fit with the primary care facility made sense. In 2003 another grant with the Robert Wood Johnson was secured to expand the medical specialty referral network to include dental care. An estimated one third of Utah County residents lacked dental insurance. With rising costs for even basic preventive care, dental services were out of reach for many individuals and families in Utah County. The addition of the dental professionals to the network of volunteer providers allowed Community Health Connect to open services to even more people in need, and included the addition of dental hygiene and dental assisting schools, dental labs, dental clinics, and a variety of dentists and dental specialists.
In late 2005, to increase funding opportunities available to its programs, Community Health Connect moved out from the Mountainlands umbrella to become its own nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. The medical specialty and dental volunteer provider networks have continued to grow, and CHC continues to provide a valuable service to the Utah County community.
To visit their site click here
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