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Language interpretation in health and social care services: Language Support: challenges and benefits for users and providers of health and social care services
Race Equality Foundation and the Mental Health Providers Forum launch a discussion paper written by Dr Beverley Costa, Chief Executive of Mothertongue
When someone needs language support communicating with health and social care professionals, a number of people could potentially play that role. While professional interpreters, bi-lingual staff members, family members and friends may all be capable of offering language support the question is - what is really best for the individual?
In her new paper, Language Support: challenges and benefits for users and providers of health and social care services, which has been produced as part of the Race Equality Foundation’s Better Health collection, Dr Beverley Costa highlights the importance of these issues at a time when the UK is not only more culturally and linguistically diverse than ever before, but also faced with tighter budgets. Emphasising the significance of context, and the importance of quality, in the use of different types of interpreters, she argues that, whilst the use of professional interpreters is essential in some situations, such as mental health treatment, that in other contexts, the use of trained volunteers is entirely appropriate.
Jabeer Butt, Deputy Chief Executive of the Race Equality Foundation said:
Beverley’s paper is a welcome contribution to the Better Health collection, and to the debate on interpreting more broadly. While her ideas may be regarded as controversial in some quarters, in others her suggestions will be seen as allowing for honest reflection on the needs of patients and health service budgets alike.
Kathy Roberts, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Providers Forum said:
Mental Health Provider Forum thanks Beverley for producing this paper and we are pleased to be launching it in partnership with the REF. We believe this will promote a highly interesting and valuable discussion and welcome feedback from organisations and the public in response to the issues and suggestions made in this paper.
This paper is the start of a debate around these issues and we welcome the involvement of anyone who has an interest in this – personal, professional, or both. Please contact [log in to unmask] or call 0207 428 1880 to join the debate.
Notes
Notes
1) This paper is the start of a debate around these issues and we welcome the involvement of anyone who has an interest in this – personal, professional, or both. Please contact [log in to unmask] or call 0207 428 1880 with any comments or questions.
2) The Better Health briefing collection is designed to explore inequalities in healthcare, providing evidence and signposting practitioners towards good practice in health services. The full briefing is available at http://www.better-health.org.uk/briefings/language-support-challenges-and-benefits-users-and-providers-health-and-social-care-services
3) The Race Equality Foundation promotes race equality in social support (what families and friends do for each other) and public services (what 'workers' do with people who need support). We do this by:
· exploring what is known about discrimination and disadvantage
· developing evidenced-based better practice to promote equality
· disseminating better practice through educational activities, conferences, written material and websites.
For more information, please visit www.raceequalityfoundation.org.uk
4) Mothertongue is a culturally sensitive, professional counselling service where people are heard with respect in their chosen language. The organisation offers free of charge counselling and therapeutic support to people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities and professional development to staff and volunteers. The counselling service aims to make a difference to the wellbeing and community contribution of BME people. Counselling is provided by paid professionals all of whom are multilingual and from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
The Mothertongue Mental Health Interpreting Service provides a pool of trained interpreters who work in a mental health context to interpret for appointments or conversations between practitioners and BME clients. Mothertongue has developed a training programme specifically for Mental Health Interpreters and for clinicians who work with interpreters. Their pioneering training programme is requested by services across the country. Mothertongue is currently evaluating mental health service users’ experiences of using interpreters. This is an under-researched area, mainly because of practical constraints.
Mothertongue has won a number of awards including the Award for Excellence in the Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and The Queen’s Award for Volunteering.
The Mothertongue counselling service is a BACP accredited service.
5) The Mental Health Providers Forum is the national umbrella body of not for profit mental health organisations across England. Our members currently provide a broad range of mental health services covering inpatient, community focused, personalised support, personal assistant, support brokerage, supported housing, day service, floating support, independent advocacy and forensic services throughout England. In all we currently represent more than 55 mental health charities. Nearly 5 million people were supported across our membership last year. For more information, please visit www.mhpf.org.uk
Kat Nower
Information Officer
Race Equality Foundation
Gaddum House
Great Jackson Street
Manchester
M15 4AX
Tel: 01618 399799
http://www.raceequalityfoundation.org.uk
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