BSMHD Interpreting in Mental Health Settings - A Practice Profession Approach

Tuesday, 4th December 2007

10.00am - 4.30pm at Britannia Street Conference Centre, Kings Cross, London.

A one-day workshop for interpreters, psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals working with deaf people.

Presented by:
Robyn Dean, MA, C.I./C.T., of the faculty of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Robert Pollard, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and director of the Deaf Wellness Center.

In order for the interpreting profession to advance, it must conceptualize interpreting work in a different way. It must articulate and embrace a new schema – a schema that is expansive enough to include not only the technical aspects of interpreting work but the human and social aspects as well. Since their first publication in 2001, which described the basic structure of their Demand-Control Schema for Interpreting Work, Dean and Pollard have postulated that interpreting is a practice profession and that the traditional emphasis on the work’s technical aspects has created numerous myths and misunderstandings about interpreting.

First is the myth that interpreters are not active and influential participants in the communication event. The second myth is that the constructs of language and culture, the ways we usually learn about and talk about interpreting work, are sufficient for capturing the phenomenology of interpreting work. The last myth is that there is a limited set of best practice behaviours that, if followed strictly, interpreters will always be ethically sound.

These myths can be problematic in any type of interpreting assignment but they are particularly troublesome in mental health settings. Addressing and dispelling these myths is essential. Many times, correcting these misunderstandings means the difference between effective and ineffective evaluation and treatment outcomes for deaf consumers. In this introductory workshop, Dean and Pollard will address these interpreting myths and present the fundamentals of their demand-control schema. This new schema serves as the scaffold for their broader practice-profession perspective on interpreting in the unique mental healthcare setting.

In this workshop, we reconstruct the interpreting event by reformulating and adding to the language and culture factors present in the work. We pay careful attention to the impact of our decisions and ourselves on the communication event - and not by denying that this impact exists. Last, we will use a very different language around decisions and ethics that creates a best practice process by which professionals can evaluate the myriad decisions available to them in their work. Participants will leave this workshop with new insights about their work, their decisions, their consumers, their colleagues, and the interpreting profession through a new, structured, and holistic paradigm.

For information about booking exhibition space or registering as a delegate please contact Clare Long, the conference organiser, at [email protected]

Delegate Fees:
Standard: £95
BSMHD Member: £55

• Book Your Place at the Interpreting in Mental Health Settings Conference 4th December 2007 (word doc)

British Society for Mental Health and Deafness, Registered Charity Number 1057135

Your use of this site is in accordance with our Privacy Statement

© British Society for Mental Health and Deafness, 2004-10