Dear All

 

Sadly it is not possible to train all the interpreters in every aspect of healthcare – helpful as that would be.  Nobody knows everything about everything.   However their training should cover the basics of not adding and not omitting when they interpreter.  It is no easy thing to convey medical terminology - formal or informal - into another language which often does not have an equivalent word or term or sometimes the concept.  Afterall non-western cultures have their own ideas of how someone becomes ill, how best to treat them and how they will become well again.  For instance the word depression does not have a counterpart in many languages.

 

Professional interpreters should never edit or summarise and will reflect the person’s language and emotional register.  They collect a glossary of information throughout their career to help them prepare for a session.  You can help them by briefing the interpreter before the session or letting them have relevant information beforehand.   They should also speak in the first person as if they were the person they are interpreting for as this avoids confusion, though it often takes clinicians by surprise at first.  By the same token clinicians should look at the patient and ask questions directly as if the person was English speaking.  The conversation will flow much more easily when this happens - honest.

 

If your interpreter is not doing this, ask them to do so.

 

Regards

 

Penny Bennetts

 

 

The example you give reflects what I have heard – a long answer often becomes condensed by the interpreter to the point where all significance is lost.  I think you’re right though in that there are even more complex issues in mental health, where both specialist terminology and disordered language may cause extra problems in interpretation.

 

 

I don't have any information on this other than anecdotal, but I think a crucial issue is that an interpreter for, say mental health or drug services knows something about mental health or drugs.  A mental health social worker friend of mine told me she once asked a client, through an interpreter, if he ever felt depressed.  The client spoke for a few minutes to the interpreter, obviously explaining something, but the interpreter just said 'he said no, he doesn't.'   Drugs workers have told me that interpreters who don't know anything about drugs do not understand the procedures involved in, for example, injecting heroin and can pass on erroneous information to the worker. 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope not always the case, Sam (I’ve seen some doctors who actually listen to patients and work well with interpreters!) but I accept if they aren’t very good at communication in the first place, they may well be worse when faced with language difference.

Jackie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi All

 

Does anyone know of any research carried out in any PCT or acute trust on consultations that are conducted in languages other than English (whether through professional interpreters or family members or where the practitioner themselves speaks the other language)?

 

If so I would be keen to hear about it - I’m sure that there are list members who may have been involved in this kind of research.

 

Oh – and a Happy New Year!!

 

Jackie Beavan

Research Fellow

Department of Health and Population Sciences

University of Birmingham