Mental health of the interpreter in psychosocial support services

Migration occurs as a result of situations such as political, economic, civil war and conflict, natural disasters, cultural and religious reasons, and the desire to access health services, education and job opportunities. It is an inevitable need for immigrants to communicate with the society and public institutions they migrate to. For this reason, community interpretşng is an essential activity that arises spontaneously in fields such as law, health, education and security. Another field where community interpreters are needed is translation activities carried out in the field of mental health. Psychotherapy interpreters serve as a bridge that fills the language and culture gap by conveying the feelings, thoughts, experiences and state of mind of individuals seeking psychotherapy. Interpreters bear the psychological and emotional burden of working in the field of mental health, as well as the difficulties of translating. Despite all these difficulties, a professional translator must be careful in matters such as confidentiality, control of emotions and reactions, and translating in a language appropriate to the jargon of the mental health.The basis of this study is the relative lack of academic studies in our country on translation activities in the field of mental health, which are becoming widespread in multilingual and multicultural countries, and the need for awareness in this field. This study is limited to interpreting activities in psychosocial support services. The sample of this study consists of interpreters in organizations providing psychosocial support to refugees in Turkey. In this study; (1) to what extent and how psychotherapy interpreters are affected by the therapeutic interview (2) what kind of strategies are followed in order not to be affected or less affected by the issues in the session (3) whether psychological support is given to psychotherapy interpreters. By seeking answers to these questions, it is aimed to examine psychotherapy interpreting, which is one of the application areas of community interpreting, and to investigate and reveal the mental state of interpreters serving in this field. In this context, a survey was conducted via e-mail to translators in centers providing psychosocial support services in non governmental organizations in Turkey, and the obtained data was examined with quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods. As a result of these data, the necessity of issues such as interpreter-consultant cooperation, training and psychological support has been determined. The aim of this study is to raise awareness by drawing attention to the psychology of translators working in the field of mental health settings and to pave the way for academic studies that will enable translators to work under improved working conditions.