improving the quality of mental health interpreting in victoria

which 24 mailed responses were received.
A total of 64 interpreters responded to the survey. The just over 10% response rate was
affected by the short (less than two weeks) response period interpreters had to receive and
send back their surveys. Interestingly, it was the interpreters with longer work experience in
the field who responded.
Work and training experience
Around 50 % of respondents had worked as interpreters for more than 10 years, with 27
percent of respondents having worked for more than 5 years in the interpreting profession.
Eighty-four percent of respondents had done ‘ a small amount’ to ‘some’ work in the past
year with mental health services, whilst less than 10 percent reported ‘none’.
A large range of languages were represented by the sample, with 58. 1 % reporting L3 and
40.3 % at L2 for their main interpreting languages.
Around 65 % of respondents had had no specialised mental health training; yet 20% of
those that had training had between 2 – 8 hours only. The VicDeaf sub-sample made up
the larger proportion of interpreters with training of 3-8hrs, and this was attributed by
VicDeaf to a past training session that had been run several years ago.
It is important to also note that some interpreters reported using self-learning techniques to
prepare for appointments and work in the mental health settings.
Most of my work is with the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture …
I have done a lot of self-learning about mental health and through translating
information about mental health...
Interpreter practitioner.
Over 90% of interpreters’ surveyed expressed interest in receiving specialist training in
mental health interpreting, with 70% also reporting a willingness to pay for such training.
The majority of interpreters surveyed (above 80%) believed that specialised training in
mental health interpreting would make a ‘significant difference’ towards preparing
interpreters for work in mental health settings.
Curriculum
The topics most preferred by interpreters were:
1. Interpreting and psychotherapy (75%)
2. Interpreting in crisis situations (74.2%)
3. Introduction to the major mental disorders (73%)
4. Abnormal illness behaviour (71.4%)
5. Interpreter Practice/ Process (specific technical issues for interpreters, e.g.,
interpreting incoherent speech, etc) (66.1%)
6. Safety of the interpreter; briefing and debriefing (64.5%)
7. How to deal with distressing interviews and incidents debriefing issues (64.5%)
8. The family and mental health problems of adolescence (61.3%)
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