Background Despite their essential role in the National Health Service, there is limited research on the experiences of refugee interpreters.Aims To explore Kurdish refugee interpreters' experiences of working in UK mental health services.Method Six participants were interviewed and data collected were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.Results The results showed that interpreters often felt overwhelmed by the emotional impact of interpreting in mental health services, particularly at the beginning of their careers. Interpreters struggled to negotiate complex and unclear roles and responsibilities. Interpreting for refugees with shared histories was particularly challenging.Conclusions The study recommends that interpreters working in mental health services receive training on mental health issues and self-care and are assisted by frameworks to help make sense of the impact of the work, such as supervision © 2012 Informa UK, Ltd.

Interpreters IPA Mental health Refugees qualitative

career refugee mental health service Emotions human Refugees Iraq State Medicine social interaction Great Britain Mental Health Services Iran interview Humans responsibility Interviews as Topic male female Article emotion interpreter service adult Translating human experiment Turkey ethnicity Culture