One person in four — regardless of culture, age or background — will experience some type of mental illness and seek help. The aims of mental health professionals are to diagnose, to treat and to manage risk. Accurate and current information is vital for mental health staff and service users, meaning that the interpreter really is 'part of the team'.
Since 2006, Language is Everything has been the preferred supplier of interpreting services to Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest specialist NHS mental health trusts in England.
Earlier this week we ran our first Interpreting Mental Health training courses at the Park Royal Centre for Mental Health and the Gordon Hospital. The courses were delivered by Gillian Trainor, the lead nurse at Brent Mental Health Services.
Dawn Bowes, the senior account manager at Language is Everything, said:
"Mental health professionals need to know exactly what a person is experiencing — they need facts to enable them to make clinical judgements.
"The linguists' code of practice allows interpreters to intervene to clarify meaning, and in a mental health setting the temptation is to try to make sense of information that is totally delusional.
"But as part of diagnosing and monitoring a patient's mental health condition, mental health professionals require a word-for-word — and possibly 'meaningless' — translation. As Gillian said: 'As far as possible, tell it like it is, tell us what you are hearing'."
The picture below shows some of our interpreters holding their Interpreting Mental Health certificates, with Gillian Trainor third from right in the front row and Dawn Bowes second from right in the front row.