Working through interpreters in old age psychiatry: a literature review
| Date | 09 March 2015 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/MHRJ-12-2013-0040 |
| Pages | 36-47 |
| Published date | 09 March 2015 |
| Author | Saeed Farooq,Paul Kingston,Jemma Regan |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health |
Working through interpreters in old age
psychiatry: a literature review
Saeed Farooq, Paul Kingston and Jemma Regan
Saeed Farooq is a Consultant
Psychiatrist, based at Black
Country NHS Foundation
Trust, West Bromwich, UK and
a Visiting Professor, University
of Chester, Chester, UK.
Paul Kingston is a Professor of
Ageing and Mental Health and
the Director, based at Centre
for Ageing Studies, University
of Chester, Chester, UK.
Jemma Regan is a PhD
Student, based at Centre for
Ageing and Mental Health,
Staffordshire University,
Stafford, UK.
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to systematically appraise the effect of use of interpreters for mental
health problems in old age. The primary objective of the review is to assess the impact of a language barrier
for assessment and management in relation to mental health problems in the old age. The secondary
objectives are to assess the effect of the use of interpreters on patient satisfaction and quality of care,
identify good practice and make recommendations for research and practice in the old age mental health.
Design/methodology/approach – The following data sources were searched for publications between
1966 and 2011:PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Cochrane Library. The authors found in previous reviews
that a substantial number of papers from developing and non-English speaking countries are published in
journals not indexed in mainstream databases, and devised a search strategy using Google which identified
a number of papers, which could not be found when the search was limited to scientific data bases only
(Farooq et al., 2009). The strategy was considered especially important for this review which focuses on
communication across many different languages. Thus, the authors conducted a search of the World Wide
Web using Google Scholar,employing the search term Medical Interpreters and Mental Health. The search
included literature in all languages. The authors also searched the reference lists of included and excluded
studies for additional relevant papers. Bibliographies of systematic review articles published in the last five
years were also examined to identify pertinent studies.
Findings – Only four publications related specifically to “old age”and 33 addressed “interpreting”and
“psychiatry”generally. Four articles presented original research (Parnes and Westfall, 2003; Hasset and
George, 2002; Sadavoy et al., 2004; Van de Mieroop et al., 2012). One article (Shah, 1997) reports an
“anecdotal descriptive account”of interviewing elderly people from ethnic backgrounds in a psychogeriatric
service in Melbourne and does not report any data. Therefore, only four papers met the inclusion
and exclusion criteria and present original research in the field of “old age”,“psychiatry”and “interpreting”.
None of these papers present UK-based research. One is a quantitative study from Australia (Hasset and
George, 2002), the second is a qualitative study from Canada (Sadavoy et al., 2004), in the third paper
Van de Mieroop et al. (2012) describe community interpreting in a Belgian old home and the final paper is an
American case study (Parnes and Westfall, 2003).
Practical implications – Interviewing older patients for constructs like cogn itive function and
decision-making capacity through interpreters can pose significant clinical and legal problems. There is
urgent need for training mental health professionals for developing skills to overcome the language barrier
and for interpreters to be trained for work in psychogeriatrics.
Social implications – The literature on working through interpreters is limited to a few empir ical studies.
This has serious consequences for service users such as lack of trust in services, clinical errors and neglect of
human rights. Further studies are needed to understand the extent of problem and how effective interpreting
and translating services can be provided in the routine clinical practice. It is also essential to develop a standard
of translation services in mental health that can be measured for their quality and also efficiency. At present
sucha quality standardis not available inthe UK, unlike Sweden(see www.regeringen.se/sb/d/3288/a/19564).
This omission is disturbing – especially when decisions on human rights are being considered as part of the
Mental Health Act. Such a standard can best be achieved by collaboration between medical profession and
linguists’ professional associations (Cambridge et al., 2012).
Originality/value – Whilst translation/interpretation has been addressed more generally in mental health:
specific considerations related to old age psychiatry are almost absent. This needs urgent rec tification given that
a large proportion of older people from BME communities will require translation and interpretation services.
Keywords Literature review,Older peopl e, Mental health, Interpretation, Old age psychiatry,Language barriers
Paper type Literature review
Received 9 December 2013
Revised 9 June 2014
8 November 2014
Accepted 7 January 2015
PAGE 36
j
MENTAL HEALTH REVIEW JOURNAL
j
VOL. 20 NO. 1 2015, pp. 36-47, CEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1361-9322 DOI 10.1108/MHRJ-12-2013-0040
To continue reading
Request your trial