It is Victorian government policy that all healthcare providers work with an accredited interpreter at appointments with non-English speaking clients; this has implications as not all bilingual workers (who are often trusted by the community) have interpreter accreditation.
The Karen bilingual worker was also an accredited interpreter and she facilitated the group appointments at the playgroup and this worked well for participants and the nurses.
So a pediatrician called in Katherine Hartnett, a bilingual social worker who runs a Hispanic outreach program for the Roman Catholic Church.
The forum for immigrants here in Mount Kisco, and another down the hall in English for interested employers, were put together by Carla Rediker, a bilingual social worker, who plans additional sessions in Ossining, Peeksill and Brewster.
Four of the focus groups were interpreted by a bilingual community worker and three were interpreted by an accredited interpreter.
Thus, the bilingual worker or interpreter is not neutral, but rather a participant in the research [ 13] and this needs to be taken into consideration during analysis.
However, whatever type of bilingual worker that is used, researchers need to acknowledge that there is often no right way to interpret and/or translate concepts across cultures.
The migrant women's AOD study employed both professional interpreters and a range of bilingual workers from different backgrounds to assist with various aspects of the project.
Even in Miami, the nation's quintessential bilingual city, international corporations complain of a shortage of fully bilingual workers to conduct business with Latin Americans in professional Spanish.
