Why Use An Interpreter?

Why Use an Interpreter?

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Non-English or English-Limited speaking clients face linguistic and cultural barriers to appropriate health, legal, or community services. Due to a lack of awareness, these same barriers may also prevent service providers from delivering quality services to all clients.

The use of a certified or accredited Interpreter to facilitate linguistic and cross-cultural communication ensure that clients and patients fully understand their rights and duties within different institutional settings and make informed health care or legal decisions. Health care providers, social or legal organizations have on an Interpreter a valuable tool to fully meet their clients or patients needs.

Risks Of Working Without an Interpreter

Evidence supports the use of Interpreters. In healthcare studies, evidence shows that patients who lack access to health interpreting services are more likely to be dissatisfied with their care and more likely to have unmanaged pain. Without the patient being able to communicate their basic health information, there is a risk of misdiagnosis, inappropriate treatment, and lack of follow through, resulting in liability risks as well as the delivery of poor health care.

Newcomers come to Canada from countries where the legal system work in a different fashion. Canada rights may be unfamiliar to immigrants who have witnessed, been charged with committing or  been the victim of or a crime, and cannot receive justice if they do not fully understand the proceedings. The danger of witnesses or victims not speaking up because of a fear of consequences is compounded when neither language nor systems are clearly understood.

Risks Of Using Non-Certified Interpreters

Although it might seem to be more convenient to use a family member, staff, or volunteer, untrained interpreters cannot be expected to deliver interpretation that uphold the professional standards of impartiality, accuracy and confidentiality.

Unqualified interpreters, especially family members, may bring biases which distort the information being interpreted. Either client or family member may omit information due to embarrassment, or to protect a relative or provider from distressing information, jeopardizing the confidentiality and impartiality of the interpreting session.

An untrained interpreter may also lack familiarity with medical or legal terminology and with health care or justice system settings, compromising the accuracy of the information.