Good practice when working with interpreters Training and support

Your group may wish to use this to set a framework for how you and an interpreter will work with one another. For example, if a female refugee requests a female interpreter because she needs to discuss medical issues, you may want to try and arrange this as otherwise she may not disclose relevant information and you may not be able to support her correctly. If you need to raise a problem with the interpreter, this should be done directly and clearly. This can be done gently at first but, if the problem persists you may have to take a more formal approach. If an interpreter fails to stay within these boundaries, then you should raise this with them.

Support links

Where possible, it is good practice to avoid working with interpreters who have a personal relationship with the refugees you are supporting. This is to ensure neutrality, objectivity, confidentiality and to avoid conflicts of interest. The interpreter’s role is to be a channel of communication between the refugee and your Community Sponsorship group. The importance of professional interpreting should be explained to the patient. If the patient still insists on using a friend, family member or carer to interpret, this decision should be communicated by the patient in their preferred language and confirmed without the presence of their family member, friend or carer. The decision should be documented in the patient’s healthcare record and signed by the patient. A person with good conversational fluency in English may not be able to understand, discuss or read health-related information proficiently in English. They may be reluctant to request or accept professional interpreting and translation services due to fear of costs, inconvenience, or concerns about confidentiality. For instance, in sensitive mental health, health care, or social service interactions, clients might feel more at ease with an interpreter of the same gender.

The sponsor’s role

This shared understanding can be complex, due to differences in knowledge systems between the client and therapist, even if they share a language (Beck, Reference Beck1995). Participants in this study also expressed concern that shared understanding between client and therapist was being compromised by the interpreting process, either due to difficulty with direct translation or by the influence of the interpreter's own assumptions. The perceived challenges to developing a shared understanding was not only expressed in relation to spoken language but also with regard to written materials used during sessions.

How to Brief an Interpreter: Best Practices

Provide the interpreter with preparation materials (copies of notes, presentations and videos) when you book, so they can familiarise with the topic. A copy of an agenda and the names and titles of participants (where applicable) is useful, especially when there are multiple people being referred to during the session. With our network of over 3,600 professional interpreters, in 190+ languages (including Indigenous languages) we enable you to connect with your customers in any language, anywhere, anytime.

Are you a therapist working with clients through an interpreter?

Automated online translating systems or services such as Google Translate should be avoided in healthcare settings as there is no assurance of the quality of the translations. This includes arrangements to meet patients’ communication needs in languages other than English. The recommended and accepted technique when working through an interpreter is the use of first-person language, which simplifies communication and helps maintain a conversational tone. This approach involves both the service provider and the client addressing each other directly, with the interpreter relaying the message as if they are the speaker. Service providers can improve the quality and efficiency of service delivery by cultivating a collaborative relationship with interpreters and giving due consideration to the limitations that interpreters face in their professional lives. This course will help you build your knowledge, confidence and skills to work with interpreters effectively.

The Importance of Working with Interpreter Training: Bridging Communication Gaps

We were approached by a university as they had been advised that a Deaf BSL User had signed up to join the university as an undergraduate. The Student Disability Services (SDS) team had never come across this and were unsure where to start. The student would be embarking on a four year journey with the university and they were keen to get it right from the outset.

Services and information

Participants in this study felt that the interpretation process refereed this shared understanding through adding or omitting information. Participants identified that working with an interpreter presented additional challenges to communicating understanding, and empathy, which are considered crucial aspects of developing the therapeutic alliance. The limitation of direct translation within interpreter facilitated triad was highlighted.

Support from the start

Participants in this study expressed concern that, due to the unavailability of relevant assessment tools in other languages, measures designed for western populations were being translated in sessions. They expressed anxieties originating from the conflict between requirements to measure outcome, and produce evidence of therapeutic change, and concerns that interpretation of measures that were not validated for the population would provide inaccurate assessment results. The experience of the therapists in this study raises interesting questions regarding the application of models of interpreting within the therapeutic setting. The shift in the participant's conceptualization of collaborative working included changing the triangular seating arrangement to sitting together, in order to encourage more explicit, and interactive ways, of working to facilitate communication and shared understanding. While the clients who required interpreted therapy were often experienced as having more complex presentations, and multifaceted problems, therapists were willing to learn new ways of collaborative working, which included the interpreter as part of the therapeutic process. In the following accounts, therapists shared what they had experienced as helpful when working collaboratively with interpreters within the IAPT service.

• These sessions were carried out, with the aid of an interpreter, in a total of 24 languages.
• Within the structure, the stepped care pathways facilitate access, and enable movement that ensures psychological benefits through efficient use of trained practitioners and resources.
• Or if you know that the appointment is going to contain traumatic information, you might want to warn them of this before they agree (without giving any confidential information).
• These are broad principles that most professional interpreters’ organizations expect the members to follow.
• Interpreters can also be booked for translation support outside of lectures and classes, to support students with writing essays and assignments.
• Many English jokes involve a play on words, or the specific way in which something is said.
• In this abstract the imbalance of power within the interaction is made visible and its effects, and intentions to respond, are articulated.

IAPT's Black and Minority Ethnic's (BME) ‘Positive Action Guide’ (2009) recognizes that people from BME communities may have additional barriers to overcome in order to access psychological therapy. One potential barrier identified is that of language and it is acknowledged that ‘non-English-speaking people may not be able to communicate their needs effectively if an IAPT service lacks appropriate language capacity. Interpreters available through language support services help ensure limited-English proficient (LEP) patients have access to quality care, as well as healthcare communications they can understand. Using our free guide, "Best Practices for Working with an Interpreter," you can equip your providers and staff with the knowledge needed to communicate more efficiently with multilingual patients.

Interpreting Services

If an interpreter or volunteer is unhappy with each other’s practice, the concern should be discussed in private as soon as possible, away from the refugees, and resolved where possible. Some interpreters might ask not to be used for certain appointments as it may bring up difficult memories for them. Paid interpreters should be aware of this but it doesn’t hurt to remind them (and the refugees you are working with) that this is the case. If  reliable certified and notarized document translation  do not explain this, some interpreters may think that you are more relaxed about this principle. You can use the de-briefing session to ask the interpreter how they feel about the session and anything they had to translate, and possibly schedule a further meeting or telephone appointment if they wish to discuss difficult content further. It may not always be possible to meet these requests if, for example, you have a limited pool of interpreters. Sometimes refugees will ask for a particular kind of interpreter, such as someone of the same gender or someone who speaks a particular dialect. You will need to consider the reasons for this request, including whether it is reasonable, and whether it is practical or possible to meet it. When working with interpreters, you should try to maintain control over the session. It is noted that one of the limitations of this study is its use of a small, purposive sample which may reduce the generalizability of the findings. It is also outside of the scope of this study to report on outcomes of the interpreted therapy reflected on by participants. Future research, which aims to delineate models and processes applied within interpreted therapy settings, in order to identify best practice, is warranted. This further research should employ both quantitative, and qualitative, research methods for triangulation, and convergence, of evidence. As identified in the accounts of the participants in this study, it is sometimes ‘hard to hear the voice of the client in these interactions’. Therefore, there is a need for more research that explores the experiences of clients who have received interpreted CBT and GSH, to expand upon the limited research that has been done in this area (e.g. Costa and Briggs, Reference Costa and Briggs2014). Those who provide services can not only improve the inclusiveness and cultural responsiveness of their offerings by working effectively with interpreters, but they can also make certain that communication is both clear and accurate. It is recognized that, within a therapy setting, a shift away from a linguistic model may be required. A constructivist model, whereby the interpreter conveys the meaning of the words, and their accompanying emotion, rather than giving a verbatim translation, may be more appropriate. This model acknowledges cultural factors in communication and the fact that some words, or concepts, do not lend themselves to direct translation. Developing this approach further, the cultural broker model (Tribe and Morrissey, Reference Tribe and Morrissey2004; Searight and Armock, Reference Searight and Armock2013) also requires the interpreter to provide cultural education and context to the client. Participants in this study tended to express a preference for a linguistic model that emphasizes verbatim translation and neutrality of the interpreter.

Services

Pre-session briefings foster confidence in interpreters, helping them to manage challenging situations with professionalism and reducing the risk of misinterpretation due to a lack of background information. Interpreters are bound by professional standards that emphasise accuracy, impartiality, and confidentiality. Their primary function is to accurately convey spoken language between parties without introducing personal opinions, biases, or modifications to the message. Interpreters must follow strict codes of conduct, such as those established by the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI) and the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL). This commitment to accessible communication reinforces the principles of social justice, making sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to engage with services on an informed and empowered basis.