1. Health and Immigration
3 May 2012
Jarred Braxton
A veteran county department and a hot county issue rarely speak the same language until now,
when the connections between the two are revealed.
With English as the official language of Frederick County, non-English speaking civilians,
including immigrants who are in the United States illegally, are in a tough position to assimilate
into society.
This law presents a true challenge for non-English-frequent speakers who find themselves in a
bind, when it comes to finding opportunities of any kind and if it happens that they are not
supposed to be here, the challenge turns to trouble that is practically inescapable until they return
to their native country.
Immigrants, legal or illegal, have a challenge in Frederick County and that challenge requires
them to learn to speak English and speak English well and quickly, otherwise they are going to
face an uphill battle.
Immigration is an obstacle for the state legislation, which essentially leaves it up to the police
force to determine what will happen to immigrants and how to handle troubling immigrants,
whether they are here legally or illegally, but immigration affects more than just the government,
politics and the police.
Immigrants are still people and people do face harm in one manner or another and eventually,
they will need health care and medical attention.

2. The Frederick County Health Department is where someone would go in order to obtain
information on where one could obtain a birth certificate, information on health care, information
on diseases and how to prepare for them. They are a useful resource available to the residents of
Frederick County.
Their website is a tool for learning new and useful information about events in the Frederick
County area, they have a list of contacts one could use in case a resident has questions, a
calendar of events and activities and endless avenues of information regarding different health
issues and trends in the Frederick area.
They are not affected by the English as an official language law because the Health Department
already has a Non-English Speaking Services Program or NESP. NESP provides an interpreter
for all languages, a Spanish interpreter outreach workers program to help clients access services
in the Health Department and other community resources including transportation, supplies for
infants and food banks, as well as a Spanish telephone line to make or cancel appointments and
access resources and finally health fairs.
The Health Department can be found on 350 Montevue Lane, in the city of Frederick, which
seems appropriate since the city of Frederick loosely follows the county law of English being the
principle county language.
The Health Department must have more than just NESP at its disposal for handling non-English
speaking patients, residents and clients, no matter how universally useful it is or has been proven
to be.

3. To determine the level the Frederick County Health Department goes to assist non-English
speakers in the county and city of Frederick, Darlene Armacost and Donna Devilbiss has agreed
to do a sitdown and discuss the Health Department’s role in the stance on immigrants.
Donna Devilbiss is the director of the Community Health Department and Darlene Armacost
represents the Community Health Department, under Communicable Disease and Preparedness.
“The Community Health Department is broken down into four sub departments: the Women,
Infants and Children Nutrition Program (or WIC), the Maternal Child Health Program, the
Preventative Health Program and my responsibility is the Communicable Disease Program,” says
Armacost.
“Our goal is to promote overall health and education and prevent disease. Also, every health
department has at least 10 core functions and we are tasked to accomplish those functions,”
Devilbiss explained.
They also mentioned that they are in the process of updating an online brochure that anyone can
access.
“This brochure should describe what the health department does as a whole. We last updated it in
2010, so it should be relatively current,” said Armacost.
On the subject of non-English speaking patients, residents and clients, both Armacost and
Devilbiss beamed over the resources provided by the Health Department to help those who do
not have the tongue for English or are slowly but steadily acquiring it.
“We are absolutely equipped to work with clients and residents who do not speak, understand or
do not have a firm grasp on the English language.”

4. “I have been working at the Health Department for 11 years and already there has been a
program that assists with non-English speaking patients,” recalled Armacost.
The Health Department already has on staff, professionals who are well adept to work with non-
English speakers currently.
“We have, if my count is correct, three Spanish interpreters with Community Health Services as
well as two Burmese interpreters for a program that we have established to work with Burmese
immigrants who come to Frederick County,” added Armacost.
“The program Darlene is speaking of is a branch of the State Health Program, governed by the
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH). Here we also do a lot of translation as well
as interpretation,” Devilbiss stated.
The two wanted to clarify that the Frederick County Health Department is not the same as any
particular hospital in the Frederick County area.
“We are not part of the hospital system. We are entirely separate entities and are not
administratively linked to the Frederick Memorial Hospital or any hospital in the county region,”
says Armacost.
“Every county health department in the state is linked to the State Health Department, but we do
work with hospitals sometimes,” injected Devilbiss.
The Frederick County Health Department is already equipped to handle non-English speaker
who need their assistance, so worrying about the “English as the official county language” rule
isn’t a factor. It turns out, it never would have been.

5. When the county approved the official county language as English back in February this year, it
approved that all official actions in the county would be in English “but exceptions allow for the
use of English such as teaching another language, public health and safety policies and
complying with the Native American Languages Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Act, the
Voting Rights Act and other laws.” Since the Health Department holds sway over public health
and safety policies, it is immune to the ordinance.
Both Armacost and Devilbiss reflected on their experience with NESP during their time with the
Health Department.
“The Non-English Speaking Services Program has been in existence for at least 11 years, as far
as I can remember,” recalls Devilbiss.
“I think it has been here since before I came to work here and I knew it was a very established
program,” Armacost added.

6. The Health Department has translators and interpreters, it also has many pamphlets and
brochures and documents that Spanish speakers are completely at liberty to use.
“We have multiple documents in other languages that other people can use from consent forms
to educational documents,” says Armacost.

7. “A good health resource that can be accessed in many languages is the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) website, since that is a national website. It is very useful,” added
Devilbiss.
By being a branch of the State Health Department, the Frederick Health Department also assists
their neighboring counties.
“There are a lot of counties in Maryland that we have translated documents for and with, and
they are willing to share. In fact, we don’t have to do everything on our own. We have also
worked with other states when it comes to translating and interpreting other documents,”
Devilbiss added.
“We also have documents in Bermese,” Armacost interjected. She mentioned a program that
involved Burmese immigrants who come to Maryland, and noted that immigrants who come to
America and speak a different language do have a hard time, compared to the immigrants who
come to America and speak some level of English.
“There is a refugee program that takes uprooted Burmese immigrants and brings them here to
Maryland. There is actually a large Burmese population right here in Frederick and the Health
Department provides a program to assist them with their medical needs. It happens that we do a
lot of translating of information to the Burmese language as well have Burmese translators here
at the Health Department,” according to Armacost.
“Another valuable resource is ‘Life in Discovery’ and that is primarily for Asian-Americans.
That is a non-profit organization that provides services to the Asian-American community,
including health fairs and they have been around for a while,” chimed in Devilbiss.

8. The Frederick County Health Department is immune to the county’s influence and law and
should be noted that it will have its doors and resources open to whoever needs them, no matter
what language they speak.
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