Clinical and Ethical Issues in Working with a Foreign Language Interpreter

With an increasing population of persons with limited English proficiency (LEP), psychologists are likely to need to conduct assessments through a foreign language interpreter at times. The goal of the interpreter-mediated patient encounter should be to approximate a language-congruent clinical encounter. Issues such as the spatial configuration of all participants during the session, guidelines for the interpreter’s verbalizations, and some modification of the psychologist’s interview style will maintain patient rapport while obtaining necessary patient information.