Episode Details
Back to Episodes
In NC's Hmong communities, aging immigrants face a health care hurdle: too few interpreters
Description
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’s Hmong community, there may be additional complications. As WUNC’s Eli Chen and WFAE’s Layna Hong write in their recent report about aging Hmong immigrants seeking health care in North Carolina, “[m]any English terms don’t exist in Hmong, such as diabetes and cancer.”
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.