Meeting a telephone interpreting need is not always straight forward. NHS staff do not always have the facility or equipment necessary to conference call patients; There may be data protection and privacy considerations to work around, and complicated further where the Service User is suffering from a mental health crisis. In such instances clinicians may…
We recently interpreted for a family with 2 children with cystic fibrosis. This involved a 2 hour review with an interpreter attending at the Royal Alexander Children`s Hospital. The Consultant was fantastic. He was able to demonstrate very clearly to the family how to administer medication. He used chest x-rays of the children to explain…
Some refugees and asylum seekers may have less than conversational English. This can be distressing and disempowering. Supporting them to get their most pressing practical needs met can be critical to improving their mental and psychological wellbeing. This can also create the necessary space to help them focus on learning a new language. We were…
I am currently working as an Interpreter in Sussex with a migrant woman, who we will refer to as individual (A) to protect her anonymity. I have also not included all of the sensitive medical details which make this woman vulnerable. (A) contracted COVID-19 and as a result had to be admitted…
Everyone at SIS tries their best to help. We appreciate that we are working with some of the most vulnerable and isolated people. At this terrible time this is even more the case. In the last 9 months of the pandemic emergency interpreting has almost doubled as a proportion of our work. We can be…
“The parents had been feeling too anxious and overwhelmed to attend Child In Need Meetings (CIN) due to the language barrier, and the high number of professionals involved with supporting their children. We were pleased when this changed and the parents felt confident enough to begin attending. A large part of this is that parents…
“The services provided by the hospital were good and I received good care. I have not received a good service from the GP practice. I cannot make an appointment when I need. I did not feel safe at work. I suffer from asthma and have a heart condition and not all my colleagues wore a…
We were contacted recently by a Migrant Support Worker from the fantastic Voice in Exile organisation. For over a week she had been trying to set up a GP appointment for a Service User. We offered to help. We called the GP Surgery and after a long and complicated outgoing message and a 20 minute…
We were contacted recently by a Social Worker from one of the Local Authorities we work with. They were trying to support a teenager who had been trafficked into the UK. It was proving difficult to establish which language the person spoke – there were three possibilities. The Police and Social Services were trying hard…
Recently we received a referral from Pathways To Independence on behalf of a teenage refugee who needed to update important immunisations at their G.P. Surgery. We checked the appointment with staff at the Surgery over the Bank Holiday week. After several calls we were able to speak with a member of the Surgery staff who…
