improving the quality of mental health interpreting in victoria

not look at the caring nature of interpreting. The consumer may be wanting more
involvement from an interpreter who is the consumer’s means to communication in order to
gain help and support.
This is important to emphasise because it relates directly to the already mentioned issues
of training interpreters in ‘professionalism’. There seems to be a confounded
misunderstanding of the interpreter’s role. It has been reported that the clinician ‘uses’ the
interpreter without a clear understanding of the interpreter’s role and may also request the
interpreter to go outside their role parameters or may not adequately understand the limits
and complexity of the interpreting task. The consumer, on the other hand, sees the
interpreter as their ‘helper’ and expects some degree of priority from the interpreter above
their work with other parties present. The interpreter themselves can often see their
responsibility falling mostly towards the client, in an ‘advocacy’ type of arrangement. It may
be important to train in collaboration with mental health clinicians, interpreter practitioners
and consumers to allow perspectives to be shared and roles clarified.
Another important aspect of mental health interpreting is ‘family interviews’ and other
treatment approaches that include the family. In fact, there has been a shift in general
mental health service provision towards more family-inclusive approaches. The role of the
family is considered to be particularly important in working with clients from immigrant and
refugee backgrounds. Consumers feel it is important that training interpreters in mental
health would also help in family settings, where the more complex dynamics between the
clinician, consumer and family members require high levels of professional competency
from the interpreter.
Another issue raised by the Consumer Advocate was that of the interpreter as ‘cultural
consultant’. Whilst the discussion around this issue is problematic, from a consumer’s
perspective the interpreter should share any information that can provide or help
communicate the meaning of a message more accurately. On the other hand, difficulties
can arise when the language of the interpreter and consumer are matched but their
cultures are not. This can lead to different meanings of shared words and metaphors of
which the clinician should be aware. The potential problems of over-involvement and
inappropriate interpretations of meaning and behaviour by the interpreter were also raised.
A recommendation was made to integrate a consumer perspective into any future
curriculum and training developments. The recently established Consumer Advocacy Group
comprising consumer advocates from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds called the
“Spectrum of Cultures Consumer Group” hold bi-monthly meetings facilitated by the
Consumer Advocate at VTPU 21 . The group would be one possible avenue for future
discussions of curriculum development or training participation.
21
For contact and program details visit; http://www.vtpu.org.au/programs/consumer/index.php
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