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Article published In: Interpreting
Vol. 27:2 (2025) ► pp.221–251

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‘Just interpret’

Problematising demands and controls for effective interprofessional working in statutory mental health assessments

 | University of Manchester
 | Heriot-Watt University
 | University of Essex
 | University of Manchester
 | Open University
 | University of Manchester
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Manchester.

Published online: 11 July 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.00120.tip
Abstract
This article explores the lived experience of signed and spoken language interpreters in the context of Mental Health Act (1983). [URL] assessments (MHAAs) in England, based principally on data from 10 interviews from a wider corpus of the Interpreters for Mental Health Act assessments (INforMHAA) study (2021–2024). Informed by (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. Los Angeles: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar reflexive thematic analysis and Dean, R. K. & Pollard, R. Q. Jr. (2001). Application of demand-control theory to sign language interpreting: Implications for stress and interpreter training. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 6(1), 1–14. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar Demand Control Schema, the present study investigated the interpersonal demands arising in interpreted MHAAs and the way in which controls are articulated and navigated interprofessionally. The findings reveal adjustments to their practice among a group of experienced interpreters in order to accommodate the interpersonal demands specific to MHAAs, the frames of reference that motivate such adjustments and the extent to which they are consistent with the objectives and practices of assessments under the Mental Health Act (1983). [URL]. In particular, they help to problematise the principle of the ‘person at the centre’ when language mediation is required and support targeted interventions to enhance interprofessional working prior to, during and after assessments.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Research gap
    • 2.2Interprofessional working
  • 3.Research design
    • 3.1Initial data analysis and organisation
    • 3.2Development of a data subset for interpretive analysis
    • 3.3Approach to the analysis
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Interprofessional knowledge exchange
      • 4.1.1Briefing
      • 4.1.2Asserting communication preferences
      • 4.1.3Interpreter-initiated comments (during MHAAs)
    • 4.2Adjustments to practice (modality and gesture)
    • 4.3Assessed person at the centre
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (44)
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