Funded by the NHMRC and the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, the Improving Interpreting for Dementia Assessments (MINDSET) Study was designed to improve the quality of interpreter communication in a cognitive assessment for dementia.

This work was undertaken because our research found that interpreters were servicing increasing numbers of people with dementia but had variable experience and knowledge about dementia. This resulted in inconsistencies in interpreting which reduced the validity of cognitive assessments, diminished clinician and patient satisfaction, and overburdened health services. Subsequently, interpreters themselves recognised the need for specialist training in dementia.

Our solution was to work with interpreters, clinicians, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) people with family carers of a person with dementia, to co-design online training targeted at interpreters.

This work comprised 3 stages. The first was codesign of the training by interpreters, clinicians, and multilingual family carers to ensure the training was comprehensive, high-quality and reflected a variety of viewpoints. It was also user-tested by interpreters to ensure its acceptability and that it met the needs of end users.

Read the MINDSET Codesign paper

The second stage was evaluation of the efficacy of the training on interpreter communication quality in a single-blind, parallel-group randomised clinical trial (trial registration number ACTRN12621001281886). The training resulted in improvements in interpreters’ knowledge of dementia and ability to brief and debrief. The effect was stronger for interpreters who completed >70% of the training, who showed significant improvements in their interpreting for dementia assessments overall, as well as in knowledge of dementia, cross-cultural communication, and ability to brief and debrief.

Read the MINDSET Trial protocol
Read the MINDSET Trial paper

The third stage of this project was to conduct a national implementation of the training across Australia, making it freely available to all interpreters regardless of language, qualification or experience level, following the development of the training and a randomised control trial. To ensure maximum uptake and reach, the marketing strategy included one in-person and one online launch, social media posts, and engagement with interpreter agencies. 

Over 12 months, from 24 November 2023 to 12 December 2024, 865 interpreters of 97 languages from all states and territories completed the training, with a high overall pass rate of 99%. This is approximately 13% of the active interpreter workforce in Australia.

Findings from the national implementation stage will be published in 2025.

Find out more - watch our launch video

Contact our team at: [email protected] 

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