In NC's Hmong communities, aging immigrants face a health care hurdle: too few interpreters

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Race, Class & Communities

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Due South

In NC's Hmong communities, aging immigrants face a health care hurdle: too few interpreters

By Jeff Tiberii,

Rachel McCarthy

Published April 30, 2024 at 12:24 PM EDT

A graphic depicting a Hmong American person (center) translating for their elderly parent (right) at a doctor's appointment. — Translating in a healthcare setting is difficult for many adult children of Hmong immigrants due to cultural barriers and differences in both the English and Hmong languages.

Children of immigrants are often asked to interpret for their parents, a task that can get particularly complicated in health care settings. For members of North Carolina鈥檚 Hmong community, there may be additional complications.

As 瓜神app鈥檚 Eli Chen and WFAE鈥檚 Layna Hong write in their recent report about aging Hmong immigrants seeking health care in North Carolina, 鈥淸m]any English terms don鈥檛 exist in Hmong, such as diabetes and cancer.鈥�

Eli and Layna join co-host Jeff Tiberii to talk about the story they co-reported called "As Hmong immigrants in NC get older, their adult children shoulder the labor of interpretation."

They are also joined by Sendra Yang, who has interpreted for her father at many of his doctors appointments. Sendra also helped start an organization called North Carolina Hmong Women Association, Inc.

Guests

Eli Chen, Digital 瓜神app Producer, 瓜神app

Layna Hong, Digital Producer, WFAE

Sendra Yang, President, North Carolina Hmong Women Association, Inc.

Tags

Due South Hmong

Jeff Tiberii

Jeff Tiberii is the co-host of 瓜神app's "Due South." Jeff joined 瓜神app in 2011. During his 20 years in public radio, he was Morning Edition Host at WFDD and 瓜神app鈥檚 Greensboro Bureau Chief and later, the Capitol Bureau Chief. Jeff has covered state and federal politics, produced the radio documentary 鈥淩ight Turn,鈥� launched a podcast, and was named North Carolina Radio Reporter of the Year four times.

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Rachel McCarthy

Rachel McCarthy is a producer for "Due South." She previously worked at 瓜神app as a producer for "The Story with Dick Gordon." More recently, Rachel was podcast managing editor at Capitol Broadcasting Company where she developed narrative series and edited a daily podcast. She also worked at "The Double Shift" podcast as supervising producer. Rachel learned about audio storytelling at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Prior to working in audio journalism, she was a research assistant at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.

See stories by Rachel McCarthy