COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

Health Department

 

DATE:

October 5, 2006

BOARD MEETING DATE:

October 17, 2006

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

None

VOTE REQUIRED:

Majority

 

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Charlene A. Silva, Director, Health Department

Srija Srinivasan, Director, Health Policy, Planning, and Promotion

SUBJECT:

Presentation of Summary of Findings and Recommendations of the Linguistic Access Study.

 

RECOMMENDATION:

Accept the final report of the Linguistic Access Study.

 

VISION ALIGNMENT:

Commitment: Ensure basic health and safety for all

Goals 5 and 8: Residents have access to healthcare and preventive care; Help vulnerable people–the aged, disabled, mentally ill, at-risk youth and others–achieve a better quality of life.

Commitment: Responsive, effective and collaborative government

Goals 21 and 22: County employees understand, support and integrate the County vision and goals into their delivery of services; County and local governments effectively communicate, collaborate and develop strategic approaches to issues affecting the entire County.

Measure

FY 2005-06
Actual

FY 2006-07
Projected

Number of community members engaged in addressing high priority health issues

296

296

Percent of strategic initiative partners indicating an increased confidence in ability of the County and their organization to address key health issues

N/A

--

(Data development)

 

BACKGROUND:

In May 2004, under the leadership of Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson, the San Mateo County Health Department and community convened for the first Healthy Communities Summit to focus on health disparities. Community members recognized that differences in health care and health outcomes in populations are often a result of social and economic factors, and summit participants voiced a commitment to eliminating these differences. One of the three issues prioritized for initial focus was an assessment of access to healthcare services by limited English proficient (LEP) populations in San Mateo County.

The Health Department retained Gibson and Associates to conduct this assessment, including research and analysis of best practices in this arena, as well as a series of qualitative assessments of San Mateo County and community programs involving clients, staff, managers, key informants and site visits. The study goals included examining current services to determine the adequacy of language assistance services, service gaps, and recommendations to reduce linguistic barriers to heath care. The final results are reported in five documents, which will be made available through the Health Department’s web site (www.smhealth.org/hppp).1

 

DISCUSSION:

The Linguistic Access Study documents that more than 30 primary languages are spoken in San Mateo County, with the following predominant LEP groups: Latinos (Spanish); Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin); Filipinos (Tagalog); Russian; and Tongans. Overall, results show that County and community programs have better capacity to provide linguistically-appropriate services to Spanish- and Tagalog-speaking clients than to other LEP groups. The study also found that organizations addressing multiple language needs face greater challenges than those focusing on the health care needs of a single language group. The results also indicate the need to examine multiple factors simultaneously, such as social, economic and systemic barriers, when assessing linguistic barriers to care. The findings and recommendations outline areas of further community work in: the capacity of healthcare organizations to provide linguistically appropriate services; policies on the provision of services to LEP Clients; and language assistance services, including oral language and written translation services.

The Health Department is committed to the improvement of access to and quality of its programs and services for all County residents. In support of this commitment the department will share the results of the study with participating agencies and organizations and any other interested groups.

 

FISCAL IMPACT:

There is no Net County Cost associated with accepting the report. The Health Department will build the costs associated with meeting relevant findings for its own programs into future department budgets.

1 Key Findings & Recommendations; Summary of Model Programs & Promising Practices; Summary of Program Manager Surveys; Summary of Staff Survey Findings; Summary of Community & Client Input.