The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical interpreters / cultural mediators in Italy

This contribution, prepared within the Erasmus+ ReACTMe (Research & Action and Training in Medical Interpreting) project, aims at evaluating the impact of COVID-19 on access to medical interpreting and cultural mediation services in Italy. Medical interpreters and cultural mediators, who play in Italy different although often overlapping roles, are particularly significant in removing language barriers to healthcare and social inclusion, despite the notable variation in the provision of these services in each European member state. Italy has been one of the first countries in Europe to be substantially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020, going into lockdown as early as the beginning of March, and cancelling all non-urgent medical consultations in an effort to prevent the collapse of ICUs. A similar pattern was observed during the subsequent waves of the pandemic when healthcare services were provided to non-COVID patients although with limitations. To what extent were medical interpreting/cultural mediation services affected and how has this impacted non-Italian-speaking patients? This contribution presents the results obtained through an online survey submitted to medical interpreters/cultural mediators from all over Italy between November 2020 and January 2021. The results reveal that the pandemic has negatively affected the provision of medical interpreting/cultural mediation services with remote communication only partially making up for the lack of onsite language support and creating new challenges for both interpreters/cultural mediators and healthcare professionals.