An Inside Look: What Educational Interpreters Need to Know about Mental Health Interpreting

February 25, 2008

Presenter: Charlene Crump, B.S., CI/CT, ASLTA-Q, QMHI, is the statewide Mental Health Interpreter Coordinator for the Office of Deaf Services, Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. In this capacity, Ms. Crump has been responsible for developing the Mental Health Interpreter Training initiative and developing certification standards that have been adopted by DMHMR and Alabama State Code. Her work in Mental Health Interpreter training has received national recognition including by the National Alliance of Mentally Ill (NAMI) and is internationally recognized by the Charter of Linguists.

Moderator: Cindy Camp, LA/TX Outreach Specialist, PEPNet-South

Co-Moderator: Jennie Bourgeois, LA/TX Outreach Specialist, PEPNet-South

This one and a half hour TeleTraining was designed to share information about the unique challenges of interpreting in the mental health setting. Many educational interpreters may think that they will not or do not interpret in mental health situations. However, most interpreters will find themselves in this situation at some point in their career.

Some of the topics that were covered in this TeleTraining include:

The prevalence of mental health interpreting in community and educational interpreting
Various techniques that are currently considered the standard for best practice that may be counter-effective when working with individuals who are mentally ill
Confidentiality and issues of alliances in mental health settings compared to non-mental health settings