RID VIEWS, January 2007
Mental Healthcare Interpreting Program in the Making

National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers (NCIEC)

Mental healthcare interpreting is among the highest areas of demand for Deaf and hearing interpreters alike.  As high-stake and highly personal as mental healthcare is for consumers, mental healthcare interpreting presents unique communicative and ethical challenges for interpreters. Yet, few opportunities for specialty training have been developed – until now:  The National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers (NCIEC) is creating a graduate certificate program in mental healthcare interpreting.  This four-course program, the first of its kind anywhere, will be designed for online delivery through the Northeastern University School of Professional and Continuing Studies beginning in the spring semester of 2008.  One of many ongoing projects of the NCIEC, the program is being developed through a painstaking process of identifying effective practices in collaboration with consumers, mental healthcare providers, and interpreter/practitioners from spoken and sign language communities from each region in the U.S.  Members of RID who are expert in mental healthcare interpreting are invited to take part a in review-and-comment process through the NCIEC website.

The curriculum will be based on what experts and consumers agree are the essential elements of effective practice in mental healthcare interpreting.  Domains and competencies were first drafted in November 2006 by a working group of experts facilitated by Dr. Rico Peterson and Cathy Cogen (Northeastern University Regional Interpreter Education Center):  Arlyn Anderson (CI & CT, ASL-English interpreter), Zarita Araujo-Lane (LICSW and president of Cross Cultural Communication Systems, Inc.), Dr. Steven Chough (Gallaudet University adjunct professor and retired psychiatric social worker), Charlene Crump (CI & CT, statewide Mental Health Interpreter Coordinator for the Office of Deaf Services, Alabama State Department of Mental Health), Dr. Neil S. Glickman (licensed psychologist, co-founder, and clinical director of the Deaf psychiatric in-patient unit at Westborough State Hospital), Dan Langholtz (MSW/LICSW, University of California San Francisco Center on Deafness, CDI & CLIP-R), Dr. Robert Q. Pollard (Associate Professor of Psychiatry (Psychology) at the University of Rochester School of Medicine), and Sue Scott (CSC, CI, CT, NAD V, AL QMHI, ASL-English interpreter, interpreter educator, and consultant to this project).  The draft document was then taken out to the NCIEC regions to a series of expert focus group meetings and individual interviews for further development.  The synthesis of these diverse perspectives on effective practices in mental healthcare interpreting will be accessible for review and comment through the NCIEC website from February 1 to February 28, 2007. Our goal is to subject the domains and competencies to as wide and as critical a review as possible before the curriculum development process begins in earnest.

The National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers is funded from 2005 – 2010 by the U.S. Department of Education RSA CFDA #84.160A and B, Training of Interpreters for Individuals Who Are Deaf and Individuals Who Are Deaf-Blind.

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