Emergency Services

What kinds of emergencies are covered by this service?
For the purpose of this service a health or mental health emergency is considered to be:

*Any medical or mental health situation in a hospital emergency room (whether the call comes from the emergency room staff or by the Deaf consumer on their way to the emergency room)
*An attendance at an after-hours walk-in clinic for either medical or mental health reasons.
*An attendance at any community crisis centre, for example a rape crisis centre, distress centre or a shelter.
*Child Welfare emergency situations where a child or a family are at risk (e.g. apprehension of children) regardless of whether the parents or child/ren are Deaf.
*Any after hours police or legal situations (car accidents, questioning, arrests or if you need police assistance)

If emergency occurs during the day contact the DHHS office.
The operator will not attempt to evaluate the nature or seriousness of the emergency. If the request satisfies one of these definitions, an interpreter will be contacted.Use of the emergency service will be assessed over time to determine if these definitions should be reviewed or revised.

Who can use the emergency interpreting service?
Anyone who needs interpreting service in the event of a legal, medical or mental health emergency can call the toll free numbers. This includes emergency personnel, police officers, hospital staff, staff from Child Welfare, Deaf, deafened or hard of hearing consumers, friends or family members.

What hours is the emergency service available?
The service is available Monday through Friday from 4:30 pm to 8:30 am and is available 24 hours a day during weekends and holidays. For interpreting assignments during the day, please contact the DHHS Interpreting Co-ordinator at your local DHHS office during regular business hours.

How do I go about contacting the emergency after hours service when needed?
There are a number of ways that you can contact the emergency service.
You can :

Calgary Emergencies:
call our voice number at (403) 229-6939
call directly call through TTY (403) 244-2798
email from your pager or home computer to dhhsemergencysvc@tigertel.com

Edmonton Emergencies:
call our voice number at 1 (866) 266-0293
call directly call through TTY (403) 244-2798
email from your pager or home computer to dhhsemergencysvc@tigertel.com

What exactly will the operator ask me if I call the after-hours service?
The operators have a prepared script that they will follow when they answer either a TTY or a telephone call. The operator will first ask you about the kind of emergency you are having. Information about the emergency is essential for the interpreter. The operator will want to know the city that you are calling from and the location of the hospital, police station, or crisis centre that you are going to. The operator needs this information to locate an interpreter in that area. Then the operator will ask for your name and phone number. This is to assist the interpreters to provide you with the best service possible.The operator will also ask if there is a contact person at the medical facility and whether you know the phone number.After you have given the information to the operator, they will contact the available on-call interpreter. When the operator comes back to you or phones you back, the operator will give you the name of the interpreter and confirm that he or she is on the way to the emergency.

What if I know the hospital’s name but not the address? What should I do?

The name of the hospital is very important but we understand that you may not always know the exact address. If you don’t know it, try to at least give the operator the name of the street and, if possible, the nearest intersection.

What kinds of situations are not covered by the emergency service?
This after-hour emergency interpreter service is for legal, medical and mental health emergencies only. If you need an interpreter for a funeral service or anything not related to police, medical and mental health emergencies, please contact the DHHS Interpreting Coordinator at your local DHHS office during regular business hours.

How will hospitals, clinics and community agencies, such as the Child Welfare, know about the after-hour emergency interpreter service?
Both DHHS offices inform their local hospitals, community agencies and other services about the after-hours emergency service.

Will Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people have to pay for this service?
No.

It is public policy in Alberta to recognize the inherent dignity and worth of every person and to provide for equal rights and opportunities without discrimination. Therefore, organizations, business and government are responsible for the costs related to making their respective services and facilities accessible. There is no charge to the D/deaf person who requires access to these services.

Emergency Services Update

Good day,

Our Emergency Interpreting Services is currently under review in order to improve how we conduct these much needed services. DHHS has tried the implementation of a $25.00 honourarium for the past year as an incentive to recruit and retain more Interpreters for our daily Emergency Services in both Edmonton and Calgary areas. This incentive has not had the effect DHHS had hoped and unfortunately at this point DHHS can no longer support the costs involved.

This honourarium does not come out of any contract DHHS holds and the costs of the honourarium payout to Interpreters are currently not recoverable by DHHS. It has been decided by DHHS that the honourarium will end effective June 30th, 2009.

The Emergency Interpreting Services issue will be brought up for discussion at our Community Sharing Meetings on July 9th, in Edmonton at ASD and July 16th in Calgary at DHHS. DHHS Interpreting Services is still very committed to providing this very essential service to the community we serve, we just need to find a more cost effective and realistic manner in which to do so.

The DHHS Emergency Interpreting Services will still be continuing, as in the past, through our emergency line numbers for all after hours requests.

If you have any feedback or ideas to assist us in our Emergency Interpreting Services review, please contact:
Duane Gillissie, Manager of Interpreting Services