Dialogue interpreting in mental health contexts: planning action and assessment for an interprofessional education initiative

The migrant experience can generate traumas requiring effective and efficient mental health care.  The importance of communication in the doctor-patient relationship is evident, and it assumes a particularly essential role in mental health, as it is a vehicle not only of narratives, but also of symptoms that can become recognisable through verbal and non-verbal signs. The literature suggests that, when healthcare providers and patients do not share a language with a high level of competence, the presence of interpreters has a positive impact on the quality of care and clinical outcomes of patients, despite some inevitable challenges. Indeed, interpreter-mediated consultations require the practitioner - trained and accustomed to the dual doctor-patient relationship - to make room for a third person who is neither doctor nor patient, and whose presence inevitably impacts the therapeutic relationship. In this scenario, training needs and challenges are bidirectional: there is a need both for interpreters to be trained specifically to act in the mental health context, and for health professionals to be trained to work in a communicative framework that is no longer dyadic, but triadic. In order to build a fruitful and team-oriented collaboration, training can take place uni-professionally (one profession at a time) and inter-professionally (between health providers and interpreters), addressing either university students or active professionals. In this contribution, we will first illustrate some relevant examples of training in Italy and worldwide, mapping what elements should be incorporated to develop practitioners’ intercultural skills. We will then present the contents for an Inter Professional Education session included in an advanced training course called “The neuro-socio-developmental disorders: an integrated approach” and addressed to Italian Health and Social Care Professionals.