Also in mental health care: interpreting via the telephone

Instruction video for psychiatristsHanneke Bot

Edinburgh, 10th April 2015

Diversity policies so far

• Have mainly failed

– emphasis on ‘differentness’– stop on funding of professional interpreters

(except asylum seekers)– general atmosphere of xenofobia; ‘everyone

should speak Dutch’

What I would like …

• No special programmes for foreigners: treatment programmes are open to all patients

• Funding of professional interpreters in healthcare is standard

• training ‘how to cooperate with an interpreter’ is included in the basic training of all (mental) health professionals

practice

• Funding is only provided for asylum seekers

• Some attention is paid to this issue in the training of psychologists, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists in some educational facilities

• Professional organisations of health care providers have jointly produced a Quality Norm interpreting in healthcare (including when to work with non-professional interpreters). In mental health care: a professional interpreters is the norm.

Tiny breakthrough

• Request to make educational material to be included in the basic training of psychiatrists (Dutch Society of Psychiatrists)

• -> 20 minutes instruction video, interpreting via the telephone; showing practitioners how to work with interpreters; to diminish starters anxiety

Low budget production process

1. Two evenings brainstorm: education specialist, psychiatrist and myself (theory and practice)

2. Education specialist produces scenario including good practices and mistakes; emphasis on a natural situation

3. Scenario written by educationalist; review (by mail)4. Set-up: scenes interlaced with comments 5. Scenes are recorded (psychiatrist, patient/actor, interpreter

via telephone) 6. Commentator goes through the scenes, notes comments7. Comments are recorded

• Total production time: 3 months

Part of basic training

• of psychiatrists in the Amsterdam area (Arkin group)

• material is relatively open – can be used in other training as well

Basis for general access to mental health

• provision of free professional interpreter services in healthcare

• training on ‘how to work with an interpreter’ included in basic training of (mental) health professionals

• foreigners are not foreign/different per se; nobody is ‘equal’

• interest in /knowledge of psychology of migration

Thank you