This study found that interpreter practice in multilingual elderly healthcare is embedded in the organizational environment and closely related to the individual's language skills, cultural beliefs and socio-economic factors.
In order to formulate interpreter practice in the context of multilingual elderly healthcare it is important to consider organizational framework and cultural competence, cultural health knowledge, beliefs and customs.
However, in the daily multilingual elderly healthcare the arranging of the interpreter practice mostly took place on the participants' individual and interpersonal level, influenced by their perception of their own linguistic and healthcare expertise and that of others, how they perceived their position and authority to make the decision about interpreting.
The aim of the study was to explore the content of interpreters' practice from the perspective of different healthcare professionals in the clinical area of multilingual elderly healthcare.
He uses an interpreter at practice to overcome the language barrier.
But they are no more than symbolic labels, for while Hitler is universally acknowledged as evil and irrational to the point of insanity, Lenin was the interpreter in practice of the rationalistic tenets of Karl Marx; and as for Einstein he has remained to this day so close to pure reason that his name is already hewn on the gates of Olympus together with those of Pythagoras, Euclid and Newton.
A previous study concerning interpreting practices in an elderly healthcare context is limited to investigating communication through professional interpreters on the spot [ 14].
We identified five core categories of support into which 24 of the 27 strategies mapping in phase I fell: i formal interpreting, bilingual practice staff interpreters, family and friends as interpreters, technologies and visual aids (eg, Google online translation; multilingual posters of body parts), and body language and gestures (see table 4, column 1).
However, the bulk of research in this area indicates that the uptake of trained, professional interpreters in practice is ad hoc [ 15- 20].
17 Sampling and recruitment were supported by existing links and key contacts among established migrants, formal trained interpreters, general practice staff and service planners with whom we had connections through previous research and development projects in this field.
Participants in this study emphasised that issues of training interpreters, monitoring professional practice, financial compensation for interpreters and the challenges of organising bookings for interpreted consultations may act as levers or barriers to implementation of existing guidelines.
