- [Interpreter] Hi, my name is Karin Claire. I'm from Victoria. I'm an Auslan interpreter, and I've been working for the past 30 years. Back in the year 2000, I did my masters thesis about the consideration for interpreters on OH&S.

- You may have seen Maree talk about OH&S, however she focused on the physical aspects and the harms and risks associated with our work, whereas I looked into the psychological and emotional impact that interpreters can experience. Today I'll be giving you a brief overview about OHS considerations. 

- I hope today's presentation will help you become more aware and gain some insight about the potential risks. This presentation isn't only for Auslan interpreters, it's for deaf interpreters as well, because we all are in this together and we need to know the best way we can support one another.

- Now to start, I'd like you to think about what type of work do you do? What assignments do you work on? Perhaps it could be in the legal setting or medical field. Have a think about it, and keep it in mind throughout this presentation. Next, I want you to think about the linguistic demands of your job. What are the signs that you need to know? What is the English terminology you need to prepare for? Keep that in mind. And I'd like you to think about the emotional demands of the work, and the empathetic engagement that you have with the clients you work with. Okay? Today, I'll be talking about a few different terminologies.

- I'm not going to go into great detail about them all, I encourage you to yourself do some reading or attend another professional development that will cover these topics in more detail. I just want you to be aware of these terms. Now, when we think about our work, when we interpret we work in various assignments and different areas and we engage with the clients both deaf and hearing clients. Think about what we see, what we interpret. The message that comes to us in Auslan that we interpret into English, we hear stories, we have to empathise with them to understand the message in Auslan to produce it in English. 

- That process can have an impact on us as professionals. And when we think about the psychological impact, often we see things as a once-off. But multiple once-off occasions will start to build on each other, and that's how the trauma accumulates.

- Many people think of the word trauma in one way. And I know the deaf community does have a particular sign that I've seen like so for trauma, and I think there's a bit of a misunderstanding about that word. If somebody perhaps is talking about abuse they've experienced, whether that is rape or domestic violence, it's not only presented in that sort of area.

- Trauma material as you can see on the slide covers a wide range of things. Whether it's somebody in the hospital who hasn't had an interpreter for a long period of time, perhaps it's someone that's experienced palliative care or a cancer diagnosis, or also witnessing oppression in the workplace. Trauma can mean more than what you think. If you think about the environments you work in, whether that's within the legal system or for the Department of Health and Human Services, those environments like hospitals can be highly emotive. And I don't think people that work in those areas fully understand deaf people, their lives and the interpreting process.

- Now, if we think about all of those demands, they do have an impact on us as interpreters. It's important that we're aware of what hazards and risk we're exposed to at work as they have a cumulative effect on us. Those things that we're exposed to are a real risk. There can be some positive effects and also some negative effects.

- There are some things that we're exposed to that we can move on and forget about, but other things can sit in our subconscious and they can appear in our consciousness at anytime; and that way it can affect not only the clients we work with but our relationships with our colleagues and our families. It's really important that Auslan interpreters be aware that deaf interpreters may be at a higher risk of this. And I think it's because of the type of work that they do. We know that deaf interpreters work a lot with clients that have experienced trauma.

- Perhaps it's someone who's migrated to Australia and they've experienced trauma in their home country. It could be somebody with a cognitive delay, maybe they've experienced some sort of oppression within their family or bad experiences with the law. If you think about the process, they can be the interpreting at the police interview in the cells, back into court, then when they're incarcerated. And then you may be interpreting their counselling sessions as they are incarcerated.

- You are exposed to the risks of accumulating trauma. Auslan interpreters are a little bit different. Yes we do work in all of those situations, but we are able to break our jobs up with things that are a little bit lighter that don't have the same sort of emotional labor involved. They could be TAFE courses or cooking classes or construction. Those jobs don't have a lot of emotional context.

- Whereas in comparison deaf interpreters work in more context that involve a lot more emotion. So we need to be aware of how this can have an effect on us and our work. It's really important, that we talk about this openly with each other and support one another. We need to talk about the risks at our job. If we talk about them with each other frankly, that way we can develop resilience and prevent these things from happening. If I'm healthy as an interpreter, that means the deaf community will be healthy too.

- We need to find a way to protect ourselves and always check in and practice self-care. Sometimes people will say, "As an interpreter, we have boundaries, "we don't feel anything," but below all of that, you are human; you have your opinions, you have feelings. You need to accept that you're only human. If we acknowledge our feelings, and gain insight to ourselves, we will be able to work in a more respectful way with the deaf community.

- Otherwise, it can have a negative impact on our family, our work and the deaf community. And that's not the point of being an interpreter. It should be about empowering the community while maintaining safety for ourselves. There are a few things that we need to be aware of; the situation and where you're working, the clients. Maybe you have an elderly client you're working with, and you can see they're a mirror image of your family. 

- Perhaps in that circumstance, you may be working too close and it's an inappropriate attachment. It's also important to take into consideration your personality type. You may be more of a perfectionist or someone who's a little bit laid back. Both of which are fine, but if that has a negative impact on your work, you need to make sure that you do a lot of reflection and to make sure that what's happening isn't affecting you. 
- Deaf interpreters may work with clients that experience oppression and feel that type of empathetic attachment. But we need to make sure we have safe boundaries in place so we can maintain our professionality as interpreters and not become too invested because that's how trauma accumulates. 

-If we think about the social and cultural environments of where we work, and even the jobs that were offered by agencies, they may only say, a doctor's appointment, and that's all the information that's attached to them. You may find yourself interpreting an appointment where the client is getting a terminal diagnosis, which can be really upsetting, especially if you're not prepared for it.

- It's important to think about what you can ask the agency for. What type of job is it? Who are the clients? And that way you can make a decision on whether you're the most appropriate interpreter or not. And maybe that day you may be or other days you might not be if you've got a lot going on in your life. You may need to say no to some work if it's not appropriate. Some jobs we do can have very big effects on us. If it's in the legal setting when we're either witnessing abuse or interpreting about abuse, very explicit things that we need to interpret can have these effects.

- We know our work is different to other professions. They may work with the same clients day-in-day-out, while we are visitors in people's lives. We may work with someone, interpret their cancer diagnosis and then never see them again. And you may have that person in your thoughts afterwards; was the chemo successful? Have they survived? Maybe you've worked in a legal setting, and you don't know the outcome; there's no closure at times, and sometimes they can leave us waiting and wondering, and again that can link to various trauma.

- Another thing to be aware of, is that times you may experience survivor's guilt; comparing what you have to someone that might not have the same thing. 

- As deaf interpreters, you may have access to Auslan interpreters whereas the client you're working with may not, they may be without support, and that can leave us feeling very uncomfortable. Also interpreters can experience the same guilt; being able to hear and access the community without the barriers that deaf people have. It's very important to reflect on those feelings.

- So, how do we know if we've been impacted? Perhaps your thoughts and how you see the world changes. Your spirituality can be affected, which doesn't necessarily mean your religious faith, but perhaps your morals and values can be affected. Could be issues with your identity, maybe you felt a certain way that you no longer feel anymore. You may struggle managing with boundaries. 

- You pull yourself back so you don't become too invested. There could be things that you used to enjoy in your personal life outside of work that you no longer interested in. May be difficult to think of things from another point of view. You may be stuck in the one perspective. 

-So my take-home message for you today is, to be aware of all these things that I've spoken about, keep checking in with yourself, and be aware of what things you can control. Perhaps you can set up some support to make sure that the vicarious trauma does not build up. We're all going to work in areas where we have this exposure. We're all humans, we're not robots, we all have feelings and it's important to acknowledge that. 

- It is not good for the deaf community or for yourselves as professionals to disassociate from that. We need to accept the fact that that's the way it is. But it's how we look after ourselves as professionals, and also how the organisations look after us too. 

- We need to be strong as a community in interpreting and deaf community, we need to consider what work that we take, and take control of the environments that we work in to try to mitigate the risk of exposure to trauma in our work. Thank you very much.