“My son will translate — he’s right here, just ask him”

Using a family member — especially a CHILD — as interpreter is poor and unsafe practice: it risks inaccurate/edited translation, breaches the patient’s confidentiality and autonomy, burdens the child, and — critically — blocks disclosure of sensitive or safeguarding issues. The correct approach is a PROFESSIONAL interpreter (telephone/video service), tactfully declining family/child interpreting WITHOUT offending or implying mistrust, and creating a way to speak with the PATIENT directly and confidentially — including seeing her ALONE for part of the consultation. The examinable hidden agenda is exactly why this matters here: hints of domestic abuse/relationship distress (low mood, unexplained bruising) that the patient will not disclose through her son, whose eagerness to speak for her (well-meaning or controlling) silences her. Getting her alone with a professional interpreter is itself a safeguarding action; never explore abuse via a family member. Handle it with cultural sensitivity and warmth, centre and respect the patient’s autonomy and dignity, plan the clinical assessment via the interpreter, and have domestic-abuse/support pathways ready.