Interpreting in Mental Health: An Effective Communication Facilitation Practice

Abstract:

Immigration is an expanded phenomenon that characterises our present societies. It brings with it new challenges and new needs to be faced by administrations. Those unquestionably affect the healthcare sector, urging for it to be adapted to treat users from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

Public Service Interpreting guarantees effective communication in multicultural and multilinguistic contexts. It is increasingly necessary in the healthcare sector of the current multicultural societies. The need for Public Service Interpreting is experienced with greater intensity in such services as mental health, where anamnesis constitutes the principal route of diagnosis for a later treatment, in which linguistic and cultural comprehension is essential.

However, not all kinds of interpreting services should be accepted. Some quality standards –that are only achieved thanks to an appropriate training – must be required. Healthcare interpreters must be properly trained in regard to languages, interpreting techniques, etc., but also in multiculturalism. An extensive knowledge of both involved cultures is essential to make healthcare interpreters able to assist healthcare providers by finding out cultural biases in mental health patients’ discourse, as those could affect communication in healthcare.

In this paper, I present some of the results of a multiple case study that describes, analyses and compares the healthcare interpreting services provided in the cities of Barcelona and Montreal. The present article outlines, from the interpreter’s perspective, the benefits that interpreting brings to communication in healthcare and describes the negative effects that unprofessional interpreting services could entail.

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