Non-English-speaking patients in need of psychiatric services are
usually evaluated with the help of an interpreter. Discussions with
psychiatrists and lay hospital interpreters who had experience in these
interviews and content analysis of eight audiotaped interpreter- mediated
psychiatric interviews suggested that clinically relevant
interpreter-related distortions could lead to misevaluation of the
patient's mental status. The author notes that pre- and post-interview
meetings of clinicians and interpreters have been found useful in
minimizing these distortions.
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