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Hi Jackie I appreciate what you say, and certainly Mehrabian's work was specific and a long time ago - being seminal - but it describes the reasons for interpreters having very specific difficulties when working by phone. I don't say working by phone shouldn't be attempted, but that it is not necessarily a good plan to allow ourselves to turn entirely to the telephone. In long term situations such as family therapy or mental health care provision the influence of context and local knowledge are important. So is continuity of professional relationships. I think it's time to follow up on the "when and how to choose the modality" conversation in a structured way. Izabel's guidelines to good practice are very helpful, however there may also be considerations about local knowledge. One of the advantages of telephone interpreting is the 24/7 availability of professional interpreters within seconds. Fine. But in many situations it matters that they know something about how the NHS is structured and operates and it is surely important that they have a known level of accredited professional competence. We still face this accreditation difficulty in the UK but bona fides are more easily checkable. I think until there is greater coherence and international agreement on accreditation we should be a bit cautious. The USA and Australia have similar professional structures and accreditations in place to us but they are in reality no more widespread there than here (or that is my impression, though Australia is a lot further ahead than we are having had the wit to start much sooner.) Many untrained persons are still operating as interpreters for a fee, pretty well everywhere. The reasons for that (in the UK at least) are lack of affordable or accessible training, poor rates of pay putting training out of reach, and a thriving grey market requiring no level of professional responsibility of the interpreter. If you check out the meaning of the word "profession" you will find a range of dictionary definitions from "An occupation requiring special training in the liberal arts or sciences esp. one of the three learned professions, law, theology or medicine" to "Employment, faculty or office which a person has and exercises for payment." Or "Occupation that is also carried out by amateurs" e.g. being an actor or footballer. You will even find 'professional' defined as "Said of a person who carries out any activity, including illegal ones, from which he makes a living" as in professional car thief/conman etc. So we need to be clear about what we mean, in an unregulated 'profession'. What are we looking for and how do we know when we've got it? It's not a call that hard pressed medical practitioners can answer directly themselves but we can at least all know what we want and say so. I think we mustn't rush into things thinking we've found a 'fix', because fixing this is going to take time and policy. Here's a little thing I wrote a long time ago, for those who can be bothered with it. It's not an academic paper but a short presentation which may be of interest. The quotes are in it. Sorry. One of my hobby horses too! Jan From: Jacqueline Beavan [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 20 May 2010 08:22 To: Jan Cambridge; [log in to unmask] Subject: RE: Telephone interpreting Hi Jan I do agree with your emphasis on the importance of face to face interpreting, but find Mehrabian very over-used as evidence in this context. His research was very specific and dealt with single words out of context. The trouble is that every course I have attended on communication seems to quote him now. There's an entertaining piece on this on http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/item/184720 Sorry - just one of my hobby-horses! Jackie _____ From: Health of minority ethnic communities in the UK [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jan Cambridge Sent: 19 May 2010 17:54 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Telephone interpreting Dear Jim I do quite a bit of telephone interpreting and it has a place, especially in situations like ambulance crews needing support, but to move to exclusive use of the telephone suggests a lack of basic understanding about communication between people (why do people hate talking to automated voices when they phone the gas company?) Way back in about 1972 a guy called Mehrabian did some work on the components of communication and found that only 7% of meaning is carried by the words. The rest is carried by voice (i.e. intonation etc) but mostly it comes from visual input. We pick up huge amounts of 'meaning' from accompanying gesture, posture and facial expressions. Add to that the fact that telephone lines are not always crystal clear and you've got an interpreter working at a serious disadvantage which will disadvantage the care providers and the patient too. Sorry to be a wet blanket but I think the phone is for very specific kinds of job Regards Jan Mehrabian, A. (1972) Nonverbal Communication. Chicago, New York: Aldine Atherton. There are others, but this one was seminal. From: Health of minority ethnic communities in the UK [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robinson, James Sent: 19 May 2010 15:45 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Telephone interpreting Dear all There was some conversation around telephone interpreting in November last year. One of the contributions seemed to suggest in some areas there was a move away from face to face toward telephone services. Is anyone aware of any Trusts or Boards that have moved exclusively or predominantly to telephone interpreting? Jim Jim Robinson Equality and Health Improvement Facilitator Lothian University Hospitals Office Address: The Bungalow Community Child Health 10 Chalmers Crescent Edinburgh EH9 1TS Tel +44 (0) 131 536 0055 ***************************************************************** The information contained in this message may be confidential or legally privileged and is intended for the addressee only. If you have received this message in error or there are any problems please notify the originator immediately. The unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this message is strictly forbidden. *****************************************************************