Browsing by Author "Drennan, Gerard"

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    Aspects of translation in psychological and psychiatric cross-cultural research
    (1992) Drennan, Gerard; Levett, Ann
    This study investigates the process of translating English-language questionnaires and interview formats into Black African languages. The details of translation are invariably glossed in reports and publications on the use of translated psychological and psychiatric instruments. This results in a lack of clarity on how these translated instruments are produced and what difficulties are encountered in their development and use, suggesting the need for a detailed examination of the translation process. Researchers working in South Africa were interviewed with a semi-structured format in 1989. Extracts of the data gathered in eleven interviews is presented here with a focus on two aspects of the translation process. Firstly, problems in the evaluation of translation quality and the interpretation of the successful use of a translation are identified. It appears that theoretical confusion results in the under-utilisation of the opportunity for translation quality evaluation presented by translation strategies. An additional exploration of discourses tacit in the use of translated instruments with interpreters, and a consideration of the role of power and resistance in these contexts is undertaken. Secondly, a rationale for researchers' use of different types of translators is presented. Unexamined assumptions about cultural expertise implicit in the decision-making process associated with translation are identified. Recommendations are made as to areas that require further research and clarification.
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    Language and the role of interpreting in South African psychiatry : a study of institutional practice in the Western Cape
    (1998) Drennan, Gerard; Swartz, Leslie
    This dissertation describes three studies aimed at documenting the impact of language diversity on psychiatric service provision in institutional settings in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Speakers of indigenous languages other than Afrikaans invariably require the assistance of an interpreter to access services as there are very few mental health professionals (excluding psychiatric nurses) who speak a black African language. However, there are no official interpreters in state services and so ad hoe solutions are employed. The full extent of the need for interpreting services and the volume of use of inappropriate people to interpret in a particular health sector had never been empirically investigated. Questionnaires were therefore used to document clinical interviews that required the assistance of an interpreter at two local psychiatric institutions (Valkenberg Hospital in 1993 and Lentegeur Hospital in 1994). The analysis of these data show the impact of inadequate language resources on service provision to be profound. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with questionnaire respondents at Lentegeur Hospital to assist in the interpretation of the questionnaire data. The analysis of the interview data addresses the inter- penetration of societal discourses and discourses of public psychiatry around race, identity, alienation and community. A third study, conducted at Valkenberg Hospital in 1997, employed rapid assessment techniques and focused ethnographic methods to evaluate the effectiveness of interpreters provided to the hospital-by a non-governmental organisation. Questionnaire data replicated the earlier quantitative studies, but archival data, semi-structured interviews with hospital staff and interpreters, and observation were used to explore in more detail the impact of language diversity in particular clinical settings. The effectiveness of the designated interpreters was limited by the extent of the need for interpreting and the absence of change in the overall approach to patients requiring interpreting. Multiple implicit and explicit roles for interpreters are identified and shown to express unrealistic expectations on the part of hospital staff regarding the capacity of interpreters to solve a thicket of problems that constellate around language issues. Obstacles to communication were found to be paradoxically visible and invisible in clinical work, being determined in large measure by the circumstances of institutional practice. Complex negotiations of identity in South African institutional settings are illuminated through an examination of the position of the African nurse as a culture broker. The theme of identity is explored further through the consideration of the socio~political dimensions of being 'known' in institutional contexts for black patients. Socio-political factors in the transformation of institutional identity in a post- apartheid health care environment were illuminated through a consideration of the role of language and this is also explored. Recommendations are made regarding the role of language in the development of culturally competent mental health care.