How does ethnicity affect communication

Symbolic interactionism and dramatugry were the theories used within this study. This study found evidence that supports existing literature on attitudes of distrust among African-American females toward African-American males, with lying, physical aggression, and cheating as top reasons. Distrust based on the females' viewpoints began with listening to warnings from their mothers about men's behavior.

This study, however As a way to increase awareness about racism in the media, research was conducted to showcase the many ways racism is perpetuated against Black people through our everyday media consumption. A workshop was held and analysis of responses from pre-event surveys, activity post-it responses, and post-event surveys were completed by attendees.

Using the cultivation theory, attendees increased their overall knowledge about how the media plays a huge part in how they see society. From the early 20th century, Filipinos have been depicted as treacherous savages or as innocent children in America, evidenced in political comics and comments from the time. In today's society, even though the depictions are not as blatantly racist as they were in the early 20th century, Filipinos are dehumanized, exoticized, or idealized and represented in a two-dimensional way.

However, this construction of the Filipino identity may be starting to change with the advent of more ardent vocalization by Filipinos with regard to the production of their images. Intercultural Communication examines culture as a variable in interpersonal and collective communication. It explores the opportunities and problems arising from similarities and differences in communication patterns, processes, and codes among various cultural groups.

It explores cultural universals, social categorization, stereotyping and discrimination, with a focus on topics including race, ethnicity, social class, religion, gender and sexuality as they relate to communication. The feminist movement has gone through many different stages, three to be exact. Media played a role in the movement in the past, and continue to do so today. My research focused on how the two, feminism and media, intertwine with one another and the affect the movement had, and continues to have, on mainstream media.

With the recent news of sexual assault allegations in the media industry, the two seem to go hand-in-hand, now more than ever before. The number of individuals that speak another language that is not English as their primary language is at an all time high in the United States, and this can make healthcare harder to access for this portion of the population. This research examines what barriers are present for those who do not speak English as their primary language, such as miscommunications, reduced trust in their provider related to being unable to speak directly with them, parts of their cultural practices and alternative medicines being ignored or misunderstood by healthcare providers, and not feeling secure enough to reveal sensitive information to Objective : Existing studies estimate that between 0.

In response to the RDAP theme of radical change, this article examines the need to change how datasets represent nonbinary persons and how research involving gender data should approach the curation of this data at each stage of the research lifecycle. Methods : In this article, we examine some of the known challenges of gender inclusion in datasets and summarize some solutions underway.

Using a critical The black body, including skin color and hair texture, has served as markers of Otherness separating Black people from people of other racial groups.

Because of this, the black body especially that of the female, is frequently subjected to the interrogation by non-black people. Two critical questions are explored: 1 What role does white privilege play in the questioning and touching of Black hair? Will Women Return Home? Examining online discourses concerning the recent policy shift in China from the One-Child Policy to the Two-Child Policy, this study organizes the online discussions on Zhihu.

Data collected from Zhihu. Amjambo Africa! When critics admonish their opponents for circulating mere conspiracy theories, they are disparaging them for subscribing to facile accounts of socio-historical phenomena that are more sophisticated and aleatory than such heavy-handed narratives apprehend.

Unfortunately, this kind of disavowal has the unfortunate side-effect of precluding conspiracy theories from more serious philosophical consideration. Arguably the most notorious information age conspiracy theory of the moment is QAnon, a byzantine, messianic truther echo-system that has recently irrupted into mainstream public consciousness.

Elements of journals that fit the LPP phenomenon are discussed, as well as what this phenomenon says about barriers to scholarly publishing for researchers from developing nations.

Implications for journals that lack diverse authorship from developing nations are listed. This phenomenon may be studied in other disciplines to further illuminate divides in the scholarly realm. Clemens, Tomeka M. Robinson Marietta College. As university professors specializing in health communication, we too were left with these same feelings. As health communication scholars, we focus on issues surrounding illness, risk, crisis, care, health inequities, and wellness. COVID is a health crisis, yes, but it has also changed the way we operate not only in higher education but in daily life.

We begin this essay with an overview of COVID and its impact on students, educators, and administrators. Then, we suggest four best practices to foster a community of Tomas is taken aback and tries to pull away from the embrace.

Is Tomas being rude for not accepting the celebratory nature of the hug, or is the coworker unaware of how people might feel about physical touch from non-family members or close acquaintances?

Spanglish is an expression of both Anglo and Hispanic culture, with its fluid shifts between English and Spanish language often compared to jazz. I am not a race. I am an individual. I am me. Improve this page Learn More. Skip to main content. Module Social Diversity in the Workplace.

Search for:. Race and Ethnicity Learning Outcomes Compare and contrast race and ethnicity Discuss how cultural differences among races may influence communication. Read and view more While race and ethnicity are both based on the idea of a common ancestry, there are several differences between the two concepts. Practice Question. Examples Consider the following scenarios of employees working at a grocery store and write your thoughts on each.

Bakery Two associates in the bakery department have been working together for about a month. Break Room In the break room, several men and women are sitting around tables eating lunch. Did you have an idea for improving this content?

December 30, Accessed July 17, Licenses and Attributions. One example of a critical social perspective is social constructionism: briefly, the notion that the ways in which we think and talk about phenomena such as interpersonal communication reflect the dominant ideas of our society and culture. Foucault argues that the ways in which people think about, classify and categorise experience is influenced by wider social discourses, and that these reflect and reproduce relationships of power within society.

So, for example, he argues that discourses of mental health in western societies have changed significantly over the past years, and that this reflects changing power relationships and the interests of particular groups Foucault, Moreover, as explored further in Section 4, constructions of difference are never innocent or neutral.

Responding to this, social constructionists would not deny that particular individuals have a range of different abilities, needs and experiences. Activity 1 posed the questions: what is the communication problem, and whose problem is it? An essentialist perspective views differences as innate and as either biologically or psychologically determined, or as the result of socialisation within a particular group. Essentialism has been criticised for overlooking diversity within groups and similarities between groups.

A social constructionist perspective views difference as a process rather than an essence, and understands it as being produced in social contexts and constructed within wider discourses of knowledge and power. If differences on the basis of gender, ethnicity and disability are socially constructed, how should people view their identities, for example as men, or disabled people, or people of African—Caribbean origin?

Where do such identities come from, and how useful are they in explaining people's experience of communication in care services? The dynamic and fluid nature of ethnic and gender categories is apparent even in the language and terminology used to describe people. Think, for example, about the different labels that have been used to describe black people of Caribbean heritage living in the UK over the past 50 years, and about the different meanings attached to those labels. Firstly, each term has included and excluded different sets of people.

Some terms referred to skin colour, others to national or geographical origin. Some terms had strongly negative connotations, or their connotations changed over time. Moreover, the terms had different meanings for different people. It was also assumed for political reasons for a time by people of Asian, Turkish and Arab origin resident in the UK Brah, More recently, and as a result of complex political and cultural processes, religion has played a greater part in the ways in which both society classifies people and people identify themselves.

These examples point to the contextual nature of identities. Another example of this is how different identities become important for people in different settings, as you will see when issues of ethnicity are explored later. Furthermore, assuming an identity takes place in a social context.

The next activity is an opportunity to reflect on your own social identities, and the meanings they have for you. How would you describe your identity or identities? What kind of words would you use to describe yourself in terms of:. You may also want to describe other aspects of your identity that are important to you, such as nationality or regional identity, sexuality, religious or political beliefs, occupation or voluntary roles, family roles, interests and abilities, and so on.

Use as many or as few terms as you like. We asked members of the course team, and some other people we know, to complete this activity.

I get into difficulty when I try to describe my nationality. Being born in England of Irish parents, I was made to feel Irish when I was growing up — as a matter of pride from my parents and discrimination from others.

I needed to think about this question for some time as there are so many different aspects to my identity. In terms of age I am middle-aged and I guess in terms of my current profession and location I am middle class but my parents were working class and migrated from Jamaica to the UK in the s.

I am a mother, wife, sister, daughter and friend — which are all important aspects of my identity. Professionally I am a senior lecturer with The Open University. A woman, white Northern Irish , born and brought up in the West Midlands, middle-aged, working-class background. This is what people said about which identities were most important and the ways in which this had changed overtime. The most important things to me are my job, and being good at it, coming from a working-class background in Birmingham, being a good cook, a vegetarian and an ethical consumer.

On the negative side, I have a disability which affects my mobility, and I am single with no family. All of these identities are important to me at this point in my life and the challenge I have is being able to give space and time to the competing demands that each aspect of my identity poses.

Ethnicity is an identity that has taken on new importance. Although I am a Canadian, I worked for many years in race relations in California. Because I am white and talked like many other white people, I was indistinguishable from the dominant group there. Ten or 20 years ago I would have laid more emphasis on my role as a mother and nurse and midwife since those dominated my life. In I would also have called myself a full-time postgraduate student. As a younger mother after the birth of the second child, I would say that my identity was consumed by being a mother.

Although we cannot know the details of your answer, we would guess that your response reflected some of the complexities and tensions in the above examples. Some conclusions that we drew from this activity are discussed below. Every person has a range of identities, according to how they see themselves and how others see them in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age, and so on. This means that seeing an individual in terms of one aspect of their identity — as a black person, for example, rather than as say a black working-class woman who is also a social worker, a mother and a school governor — is inevitably reductive and misleading.

The identities people assume, and the relative importance they attach to them, change over time because of both personal change in their lives and change in the external world for example, as a result of changing ideas about disability. Aspects of identity may have different meanings at different times in people's lives, and the meanings that they attribute to aspects of their identity for example, ethnicity may be different from the meaning it has for others for example, being black may be a source of pride for you, but the basis of someone else's negative stereotyping.

Different identities assume greater or less importance, and play different roles, in different contexts and settings, and in interactions with different people. In constructing their identities, people can only draw on terms that are available in society at that time, which have meanings and associations attached.

However, people may attribute different meanings and importance to those labels. This means people always negotiate their identities, in the context of the different meanings attached to them. Taking this view of identity, as a social process that people engage in, rather than as a fixed essence inside them, is not to deny that particular identities are extremely important for certain groups and individuals.

However, a more dynamic and social model of identity is useful because it makes it difficult to reduce people to any one aspect of their identity, or to use social identity as a way of explaining every aspect of their behaviour and needs, including their communication needs and behaviour.

Social identities, whether based on ethnicity, gender, disability or other factors, should be seen as:. These first few sections have emphasised the point that differences are always produced in a social context, and that a key part of that context is power relationships. One of the key arguments against essentialist views of difference is that they reflect, and at the same time help to perpetuate, inequalities of power and status.

Section 3 noted that the ways in which the terms used to describe people from certain ethnic, geographical or national backgrounds have changed significantly over time. The same can be said of attaching labels to people on the basis of a supposed disability, or sexual preference, or age.

Decisions about individual needs, such as those relating to health and social care services, are then based on widely shared assumptions about people belonging to that group. The next activity is an opportunity to reflect on your own experience of prejudice and discrimination.

Look again at your answer to Activity 3. Now think of an experience when an aspect of your identity for example, in terms of ethnicity, gender, disability, class, sexuality or age resulted in you:. Here is an example from a course team member, which you may want to compare with your own answer. I grew up with the reality of poverty and anti-Irish prejudice.

Later, as a nurse, I found that I was in an inferior position to male doctors and was even bullied and harassed by senior staff. This was part of the culture of being a young nurse. As a senior nurse, I was often in charge of shifts, so that power was afforded to my position. Later in life, as a midwife, I acted as an advocate to the women in my care and challenged oppressive behaviour towards them. I was often consulted over care decisions and seen as someone who was powerful and assertive.

Individual examples of prejudice and discrimination should not be seen as isolated or free-floating. However, a social model of difference would view them as reflecting wider institutional patterns and structures.

Stereotypical views held by individuals do not materialise out of thin air. They often reflect deeply rooted social attitudes, which are themselves grounded in processes of oppression and exclusion going back hundreds of years. Similarly, feminists argue that negative images of women have their origins in patriarchal structures and practices going back millennia Abbott, This discussion is developed further in the next three sections with specific reference to issues of ethnicity, gender and disability.

Stereotypes can lead to prejudice and discrimination, which themselves reflect and perpetuate wider processes of oppression, such as sexism and racism. It is perhaps the area that first comes to mind when there is discussion about issues of communication and difference in care services, but it is also an area where the arguments are most complex and contentious.

Your work on Section 1 demonstrated the important part played by language and terminology in the construction of differences. At the outset, we should say there is a growing body of literature on these issues, and how these terms and concepts are used does not stand still but is perpetually being revisited and redefined Barker, ; Brah, ; Hall, ; Gilroy, ; Gunaratnam, a.

Racial thinking was at its height in the 19th and early 20th centuries and was associated with the ideologies of empire and colonialism. However, there are some genetic differences between groups of people which seem to have a geographical origin. For example, some inherited disorders are more prevalent in certain areas of the world and in communities that have migrated Weatherall, Thalassaemia is more prevalent in Greek-Cypriot communities, whereas cystic fibrosis is more prevalent in North European communities Ward, According to the sociologist and psychodynamic writer Michael Rustin:.

Racial differences go no further, in their essence, than superficial variations in bodily appearance and shape — modal tallness of different groups, colour of skin, facial shape, hair, etc. Given the variations that occur within so-called racial groups … it is hard to find any significance in these differences except those which are quite arbitrarily assigned to them … Racial differences depend on the definition given to them by the other — that is to say, on the definition of the other- and the most powerful definitions of these kinds are those which are negative — definitions that we can call racist.

To quote social policy writer Esther Saraga:. From a social constructionist perspective what is important is the ways in which these terms link together to produce a social relation, which organizes how people are placed in society.

Human populations are divided into discrete categories on the basis of variations in physical features. This social process of categorization and classification is then said to be a product of nature — that is, racial division is said to be natural. This assumes that white people do not have an ethnicity, and constructs ethnicity as pertaining only to minority groups.

But some people are of dual or mixed heritage and do not fit neatly into the categories offered, thus calling into question the whole process. How should you define your ethnicity if one of your parents is African—Caribbean and the other white, for example, or if like the British fomer Labour MP Oona King you are both black and Jewish? In Activity 3 you reflected on your own identity.

How easy or difficult was it to define your ethnicity? How important was your ethnicity to you? The next activity is an opportunity to focus specifically on your ethnic identity. Read through the list and then decide which term best describes you.

I would not necessarily use the same terminology in the Caribbean. What might be important in the Caribbean is that someone of Caribbean parentage has been born in the UK, hence someone might use nationality in this context, i. How did you get on with this activity? Like us, but perhaps in different ways, you may have thought the census categories were too limited and rigid and did not match the way in which you perceive your ethnic identity. However, we hope that doing this activity has helped to illustrate some important points about the nature — and limitations — of the idea of ethnicity, some of which are explored below.

As we noted in Section 1, the names and labels used to denote specific differences — including those relating to ethnicity — are always changing. You may also have noticed that the categories in the list refer to different things: some are about skin colour, while others refer to national or geographical origins. Then again, the list does not include some categories that people might regard as ethnicities, or might have been regarded as ethnicities in the past. Cultural needs are defined largely as independent of other social experiences centred around class, gender, racism or sexuality.

This means that a group identified as culturally different is assumed to be internally homogeneous …. Brah makes two important points here. One is that defining people in terms of their ethnicity reduces them to one aspect of their identity, and overlooks needs that may derive from other aspects.

Stratification by class, income and so on is then seen as unimportant; issues of institutional and individual racism as determinants of health status or healthcare become peripheral at best.

While acknowledging the reservations expressed by Brah and Ahmad, David Kelleher, a health researcher and medical sociologist, defends the use of these terms in some contexts, specifically referring to the experience of people of Bangladeshi origin in the UK:. Being regarded as different may lead to people becoming more aware of their ethnicity and cultural identity.

Recognising their difference and turning it into a source of strength is one reason why people may emphasise cultural differences in terms of what they eat and how they dress, and this may lead them to maintaining an allegiance to the religion of their group and to become even more aware of what it is to be a Muslim than are the people in Bangladesh. This is one of the paths which some young, second-generation Bangladeshi people are taking. So, while for some their religion has become the most important structure of relevance in their lives, for others a more important focus for their life may be being a student, or a businessman or a doctor.

Next we move on to discuss the ways in which fixed ideas of ethnic difference can be used to disadvantage and discriminate against some groups in the population. African—Caribbean communities tend to live in sections of the city where there may be poor housing but they prefer to live where there are other African—Caribbeans who can provide support and where there are local shops selling Caribbean food.

Most African—Caribbeans are extremely religious, attending fundamentalist churches. Women start their families very young, but the mother of a teenage mother provides a lot of support. Generally, African—Caribbean women do not believe in contraception but the rate of abortion is very high.

The description above of African—Caribbean families in the UK reflects some popular stereotypes. As you read it, think about the kind of picture that emerges of people of African—Caribbean origin. The impression given in this account is that all African—Caribbean people are similar, with similar family forms, lifestyles, values and beliefs. The description presents a stereotype of African—Caribbean family life, rather than a reflection of diversity within the population.

It fails to represent differences within African—Caribbean communities in terms of class and religion, and between generations. The next activity explores some of these implications. Imagine that you are a white advice worker who has had little contact with African—Caribbean families.

Your view of African—Caribbean people has been informed by the kind of stereotypical views reflected in Activity 6.

Now imagine that you have been asked to visit an African—Caribbean mother and her year-old daughter who is pregnant, and who have asked for advice. Influenced by the kind of stereotypes outlined in Activity 6 , you might expect the family to be living in a poor part of town close to other African—Caribbean families. You would probably expect the mother to be furious with her daughter, and you might be on the look-out for signs of physical abuse.

Paradoxically, you might also expect a degree of understanding from the mother, as she probably had the same experience of teenage pregnancy. Given the apparently matriarchal nature of African—Caribbean families, you might be keen to speak to the young woman separately from her mother, in case she felt intimidated.

When you interview the young woman, you might expect to discover she has slept around and not used contraception, but also that she is reluctant to keep the baby. As a consequence, you might arrive prepared to give contraceptive and abortion advice, or offer a referral to a family planning clinic.

In other words, the generalised assumptions that you brought to this individual case would shape your attitudes and actions in very real and practical ways. At this point, note that, as the authors of this course, we debated the dangers inherent in setting this activity.

There is a risk that a case study including a pregnant African—Caribbean young woman may itself perpetuate certain stereotypes. As you will see, the next activity attempts to challenge this kind of stereotypical thinking, but negative images are difficult to dislodge.

In the next activity you will reflect on what might be the impact of negative stereotypes on people at whom they are directed. David and Marie Cameron, a married couple in their 40s, live in a middle-class suburb. Both are active in the local Labour Party but, although Marie is from a Catholic background, they are not particularly religious.

Louise has recently come under peer pressure at school to hang out with a group of white boys, and at a particularly wild party one of the boys forced Louise to have sex. The family have recently discovered Louise is pregnant. The young man, whose father is an influential local businessman, denies using force and, under pressure from the police, the Camerons have decided not to press charges.

After a lot of family discussion and heart searching, Louise has decided to keep the child, and her parents have agreed to help look after him or her, when she eventually leaves home to pursue her ambition to train as a psychiatric nurse. David wanted to be present for the meeting with the advice worker, but was called away at the last minute for an urgent union meeting.

The case study above is of a family in similar circumstances to those described in the previous activity. Now imagine that you are either Louise or Marie, her mother, and that you are meeting the advice worker.

Imagine, too, that the advice worker brings to the meeting the kinds of assumptions about African—Caribbean families expressed in Activity 6.

How do you think you would feel in this situation? It is difficult to imagine how this might feel, unless you had experienced something similar. I would probably feel as though one aspect of my identity, my ethnicity, was being made to count more than other elements of my personality and experience, such as my education, class, political beliefs, and so on.

It can lead to poor communication and the failure to provide adequate or appropriate services that meet individual needs. It involves making stereotypical generalisations that overlook diversity within groups. Assumptions based on racial or ethnic stereotypes can lead inadequate or inappropriate provision of services. What practical steps can service providers take to ensure all members of the population, whatever their assumed ethnicity, have equal access to services and can participate fully?

Lena Robinson is a psychologist and social work educator who has written extensively on issues of cross-cultural communication for people in the caring professions.

The next activity involves reading a chapter that was adapted by its author for this course. Click to read: Beliefs, Values and Intercultural Communication. Robinson suggests that a lack of trust between service users and health and social care practitioners may be due to incongruity between expressed beliefs, attitudes and values, on the one hand, and actual behaviour on the other.

Drawing on the work of Kluckholm and Strodtbeck and their theory of value orientation, Robinson explores disparities that may exist in beliefs, attitudes and values between communicators of different ethnic backgrounds. Robinson argues that individuals have multiple identities and that, in working across cultural boundaries, we all need to develop skills of listening and learning about individuals whose realities may be very different from our own.

You may have noted that Lena Robinson starts by stating explicitly that she is writing from a psychological perspective. Section 2 noted that there is a link between psychological perspectives and essentialist ideas of difference, although the point was made that not all psychologists can be described as essentialists.

Writers such as Avtar Brah or Waqar Ahmad might take issue with this kind of statement, on the grounds that it generalises about very diverse groups.

One of her repeated points is that white practitioners may fail to communicate effectively with black people precisely because they do not share their experience of racism. As Robinson acknowledges, effective practice in inter-ethnic communication is fraught with difficulties and dilemmas. It has been suggested that communication may be assisted by appointing health and social care workers from the same ethnic background as patients and clients and that this promotes greater understanding between care providers and users Papadopoulos et al.

How would you describe this view? Now that is quite convenient for managers, because managers are white yeah? Whereas if you have a black worker take it, somehow you are expected to be able to work with them ….

The extract above is from an interview with a black social worker participant carried out by social policy researcher Gail Lewis GL. You may have agreed with the suggestion that this approach assumes homogeneity within ethnic groups and does not take account of other differences such as gender, class, age and sexuality. In addition, religion may present challenges and complexities. Often the subtleties of religious beliefs are not recognised or indeed the fact that religious practices are not homogeneous.

She further argues that the present literature on cross-cultural communication in health and social care focuses on the technical aspects of communication and hence takes attention away from the difficulty of dealing with the emotional pain of the client:. I would argue that technical preoccupations with meaning in cross-cultural encounters can serve as a defence against the anxiety of witnessing and holding emotional pain in health care interactions.

Perhaps you noticed that in this quotation Gunaratnam uses psychodynamic language. Another way in which services have attempted to respond to issues of inter-ethnic communication is the provision of services for people whose first language is not English.

As noted there, poor communication in health services can have serious consequences, leading to misdiagnosis, ineffective interventions and, in extreme circumstances, preventable deaths. Where appropriate interpreting and translating services do not exist, children are often put in the position of translators. It is not just people whose first language is not English who may want to use interpreters or link workers.

Other people may experience difficulty when trying to access health and social care because of language difficulties.

This may be off-putting not just to users from black and ethnic minority communities but also to people from other backgrounds, for example people who speak with a range of regional and national dialects, people with learning disabilities and those with mental health problems. However, for people who do not understand or speak English there is a particular need. The next activity explores some of the issues about using interpreters in care services.

Sandra Rote, RCN Health Visitors Forum, introduced the resolution by noting that the importance of communication was now recognised on pre-registration courses. She asked how nurses are supposed to deliver care if they cannot talk to patients? She deplored the use of family and friends as interpreters. She mentioned cases where asylum seekers were unable to describe their health needs to nurses and said that many clients did not want to disclose health issues to a friend or family member who could translate.

She praised the work of Language Line but said that interpretation also meant understanding body language and inferences. She said that it was not just a question of more staff but called for interpreters to be on permanent contracts and have access to training.

She also said that staff should be trained to work with interpreters. The first speaker was a school nurse who knew of cases where children were used as interpreters and said this was a major concern for school nurses. She also said that communication meant understanding languages and culture and the real meaning of words. The next speaker mentioned that translation services were a target in the NHS plan and called upon them to be available for all patients. A nurse from London said she was privileged to work in an area of great cultural diversity and couldn't practise without good translation services and remain within the code of conduct.

She described the situation of using a relative to break bad news to a patient as being unbearable and said an interpreting service was a basic human right.

The next speaker said that interpreting services should include prison service health centres. She was followed by a speaker who said that communication and informed choice were basic human rights and called for sign language to be included too.

When she informed the consultant that the woman was in pain she discovered there was no mention of pain in the notes.

He thinks it is all in my head. The next speaker said that interpretation services were essential to delivering the Congress theme of putting care first and said it was important that interpreters were trained in terminologies. Another speaker described a personal experience of health visiting a family who she later discovered were living in extreme poverty.

The last speaker said that the profession needed to be sensitive and culturally aware. The UK is now an established multi-cultural community. Health care providers need to be able to communicate with people from all backgrounds and ethnic groups so as to ensure the best possible care is provided.

Unfortunately, in some instances, language barriers have compromised care outcomes. The NHS does not have a national standard for the provision of interpreter services. On many occasions relatives and friends of patients have to be relied upon to act as translators, a situation which guarantees neither accuracy nor confidentiality. The situation has been compounded over recent years by the increase in number of asylum seekers and refugees.

These people have often fled their own countries and may have been subject to a high degree of stress, abuse, and even torture. To communicate with these people, even if they did have a good command of English, would be difficult let alone when a translator may be required.

Language Line provides a telephone-based interpretation service and can assist with translation of text to speech and English text to other languages.

The service is able to provide help with over languages, yet it is not a face-to-face service. In a few areas of Scotland a number of agencies have come together to provide interpretation and translation services across all public sectors, e. A number of Health Boards in Northern Ireland are working with The Equality Commission to publish information booklets in a number of languages and to supply interpreters. Read the report on the previous screen of the RCN Health Visitors Forum in and, as you do so, list the key reasons Sandra Rote gives for employing interpreters.

They may offer their own views and opinions rather than relaying the needs and wishes of the person for whom they are interpreting.

The main principle put forward is that having access to an interpreter is a basic human right and that it impacts fundamentally on the quality of care. Issues surrounding language and ethnicity are complex and contested. At the time of writing, there are suggestions that competence in English should be a requirement of British citizenship, while other people suggest that the diversity of languages in the UK should be a cause for celebration.

Clearly, there are implications for service provision. If new migrants are required to learn English, there may be less emphasis on providing translators and interpreters. There is a danger of overlooking the difficulties involved in learning a new language.

For many women from South Asia and from parts of Africa such as Somalia, the inhibiting factors may be that English language classes are often held in the evening, when caring responsibilities in the home and the fear of racial attacks or abuse on the streets may prevent them from attending. The effects of non-communication can lead to the build-up of frustration, anger, misunderstanding, time wasting, inappropriate intervention, withholding entitlements, misdiagnosis or even miscarriages of justice.

Here a range of local health organisations — health authorities, NHS Direct, primary care groups, local authorities and voluntary agencies — worked together to provide a pooled resource for spoken, written and telephone translation and interpreting as well as sign language interpreters.

The initiative provides appropriate training for interpreters and translators. It is also important to provide training for staff on using interpreters, as the three-way dialogue can be extremely confusing. Furthermore, there may be different norms and traditions in language which mean that when an interpreter is asked to translate what appears to be a simple question, a much longer dialogue is needed before the question itself is asked.

Interpreting is extremely complex in that interpreters must ensure that the patient or client easily understands the language they use. Again other factors, such as class, region, religion and geography, may impinge on the process of interpreting and communication — such that just speaking the same language may not necessarily mean the same understanding will follow.

Sometimes people are reluctant to use interpreters who are from the same geographical locality or community for fear that personal information will not be kept confidential. This is less likely to happen where trained interpreters are used but, in some situations, anyone who is perceived to speak the required language may be asked to interpret and these processes are far more likely to remove confidentiality.

More recently link workers , rather than just interpreters, have been employed by health and social care organisations. Link workers are perceived to have a broader role, which includes advocacy.

However, it can be very difficult for link workers to be true advocates because of their position within the organisation. Link workers are often employed on fairly low salaries and sometimes on short-term contracts from specific funding for black and ethnic minority communities.

This may mean they are unable to complain on behalf of a patient or client or to challenge or demand the delivery of appropriate services on their behalf. More health and social care organisations are recognising the need to provide written information in a range of languages. Translating information from English to other languages can present a range of problems as a literal translation may have little meaning once translated into Urdu or Punjabi, for example.

This is also true of translation to Braille.