News and notes from Imagine! and the Imagine! Foundation.
3 Ways to Support Your Spanish Speaking Clients during the Pandemic
Nov-10-2020
Services
Guest writer Marlen Montanez joins us today with a topic on how Case Managers can better support their Spanish speaking clients. She is a Case Manager with Imagine! and the Bilingual Team Lead.
When the pandemic forced many of us into quarantine at the end of March, we were scrambling to find solutions to help the people we serve at Imagine!. This was an especially challenging task for our Spanish speaking clients, because culturally, they are more comfortable with speaking in person. We had to work with them to try and find solutions that allowed us to support them in a safe but accessible way. To help you figure out the best to way to support your clients, here are three ways that have worked for us.
Practice Social Distancing by Scheduling Zoom Calls
The CDC recommends that people follow strict rules including wearing a mask, washing hands, and staying six feet away from folks not from their households at all times. So in order to do that, we started scheduling Zoom calls with the families. This practice is the easiest way to ensure that both the families and the Case Managers are safe at home. Additionally, this practice allows us to see each other’s faces, as opposed to meeting in person with masks on. Zoom has also added more accessibility features to help those who are hard of hearing or deaf. Go to one of these links to learn more about how to set up these features. (EN) https://zoom.us/accessibility (ES) https://zoom.us/es-es/accessibility.html
If you need help setting up Zoom, or walking your families through installing the application, please use this link: (EN) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7jP2vCymow (ES) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mkwcrK3Pwc. We definitely miss seeing our families face to face, but for now Zoom is definitely a great option to socially distance while being able to read body language, hear tone, and share smiles.
Texting and Phone Calls
When Zoom and other video chat options are unavailable to you or the family that you work with, texting and phone calls work as well. Allowing the families to text you gives them access to help at any given time during the day. It’s a great way to always be available to your family, with the only downside being that you cannot see their body language or hear their tone through text. For us at Imagine!, we have seen an increase in texting as families try to navigate the pandemic without face to face interactions with us.
Increase Translation or Interpretation of Documents
When families have to navigate a lot on their own, they will need some help with filling out documents and advocating for their needs. To do this, it’s important to make sure that they have access to translated documents and information as much as possible. We are currently meeting with other organizations in the community, such as El Comite Longmont and El Grupo Vida, so that we can expand our Spanish resources for the families that we serve. By increasing accessibility to information and documents, we help these families become better advocates for themselves during a pandemic and beyond.
While we definitely cannot wait until we can meet with our families face to face, for now we must do everything we can to protect the health and safety of everyone. If you have any resources that you think we should share, please feel free to send them along! It starts with us to help create a world of opportunity for all abilities and all languages.
