He also operated an outdoor therapeutic camp in Cleveland, Georgia, that he dealt mainly with young adolescents. In a recent interview with Mr. Davis, now the Chief Operating Officer of Northwest Regional Hospital I was granted the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes of this mental health care facility.
Today Davis works at Northwest Regional Hospital of Rome, Georgia. This hospital started in the 1940's and was used as a military base during WWII, later served as a tuberculosis hospital, and by the 1970's became a psychiatric hospital. Still today this hospital has approximately 250 occupancies and continues to serve the portion of our society that seek mental help.
Consequently, Davis shared his viewpoint on language barriers among his facility, explaining how language barriers had already been reviewed but his main objective was communicating with patients from a different aspect. Davis stated: "We do serve a Hispanic population, quite a bit of Germans, and for that reason some of our staff, nurses, doctors, and attendants are bilingual." Presently, this hospital partakes in one of the services that is becoming more predominant around the region, telephone-translating services. Besides language barriers, he emphasized that the biggest problem of this facility was communicating with the vast majority of patients that suffered from developmental retardation and severe mental illness. As a result, Davis proved that around this area language barriers have been addressed.
Although Atlanta has the problem in resolution mode the question still remains open for other areas. In what ways will other cities eliminate the language barrier and to what extent will they take it to ensure that the patient receives equal treatment.
Take for example, in Mesa, Arizona, a Yugoslavian man, taken in by a family member because he suffered from severe stomach cramps and could not eat, was attempting to jump from the third-floor window.