While waiting for North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to create a general Limited English Policy, Rowan County Department of Social Services’ policy has been put on hold.
While the state didn’t have such a policy for non-English speaking people, Social Services board members Jeff Morris and Zell Setzer worked to have one in place.
“We were ready to vote on the policy at Tuesday’s board meeting, but now we have to send what we have to the state, wait for them to approve it, then vote on it at our next board meeting,” Setzer said. “If we don’t get a reply, we will go ahead and put it in place.”
The Limited English Proficiency Policy is designed to ensure that non-English speaking clients interact effectively with healthcare providers and social service agencies.
Currently, Terry Hodges, the Department of Health and Human Services State Compliance Attorney, has developed a Limited English Proficiency policy for North Carolina. All counties are to use this as a model for their own policies.
County agencies are to use the format and, upon approval, can plug-in their extra items.
At the Social Services’ Board meeting Tuesday, Director Sandra Wilkes referred to the state’s requirements of not having to provide everyday interpretation, which can be handled one day a week.
“All counties have to do an assessment of the number of non-English speaking clients to determine if they need daily interpreters or not,” Wilkes said. “Counties with high number of clients will have daily interpreters. Those with low numbers may not have that same access.”
For Rowan County, an assessment is still being done to determine whether or not they will have daily interpretation.
Presently, Social Services has one full-time interpreter.
However, Morris disagrees with having just a once-a-week interpretation for the non-English speaking clients.
“We cannot turn back a non-English speaking client because of a language barrier,” Morris said. “Suppose we have a Hispanic person come that is being abused at home. What would happen to that person if we handed them a note in Spanish that says, ‘Sorry, but we can’t understand you and you’ll have to come back another day when we have an interpreter.’ ”
Along with Social Services providing the same-day access to service, they’re also planning to provide federal civil rights forms in English and Spanish.
“Within the Department of Justice, people are not to be discriminated against on race, color or national origin ... every Social Services’ client has their own rights,” Setzer said.
Within the next few days, Morris plans to review the state’s policy, then send Social Services’ version of the policy to Hodges for review.
“Implementing this policy will ensure our non-English speaking clients quality service,” Morris said. “And we’re not trying to micromanage. If the law tells us we should be doing this, then we should.”
Other issues discussed at Social Services board meeting Tuesday:
- The N.C. governor’s freeze on county reimbursements and revenue payments has Social Services cutting five percent of their expenses, which equals to $17,500.
This is causing vacant positions and expenses for purchasing supplies to be cut, as well as equipment repair and maintenance, telephone and printing services to be put on hold.
“Although these cuts are pretty hard, we are very thankful that these were not employee cuts,” Wilkes said. “However, this freeze is to last until the end of this fiscal year, which is July 1, and then we can start over and fill those frozen positions.”
- Social Services Board members wants final say in approving all contracts with outside agencies.
Stated in the North Carolina General Statute, the board is supposed to engage in all decision processing, which must be signed by the chairman of the board.
Vice-chairperson of the board Marjorie Kinard said that the board has never reviewed contracts in the past and questioned why they should start now.
“By reviewing each and every contract one by one, this is going to be very time-consuming,” Kinard said.
“We are merely stating that [the board] should follow the law, and the law vests exclusive power to contract with outside contracts in the board, not the director or the finance director,” Morris said. “In the past, the director signed all contracts, but in the future the director will not sign any contracts.”
The board’s full review and approval of contracts could cause more items to be questioned and changes to be made.
And according to Morris, “this will make our contracting process more efficient in Rowan County.”
Contact Cortney L. Hill at 704-797-4249 or chill@salisburypost.com
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