by Krystal Paco

Guam - Language barriers often become roadblocks to getting adequate healthcare. To address this, the Department of Public Health, Project Karinu, the Guam Office of Minority Health, the University of Guam, and Guam Ceddars have partnered to host "Linguistic Competence in Behavioral Health Settings: Training Our Language Assistance Services on Guam".

Center for Disease Control Principal Investigator for the Pacific Center of Excellence to Eliminate Disparities Dr. Neal Palafox said, "With what we call social equity the poor have to be brought up to standard and the education for the people who tend to be poor has to be brought up, because without these two components, even if you have language competency you will not be totally able to navigate the health system if you're not educated and you're poor."

Over 100 healthcare providers participated with focus groups to continue through tomorrow.