A report by Women's Safety NSW into Interpretive Services in Domestic and Family Violence Matters, revealed multi-cultural victims and survivors of violence and abuse were not always being offered access to interpreter services.

In instances where they were, the interpreter available may not be culturally safe for the victim nor trauma-informed for victims of violence - leaving both the victim and the interpreter at risk.

The report, which was based on a survey of 42 frontline domestic family violence workers, noted it's findings were consistent with that of the NSW Domestic Violence Death review Team Report 2017-2019, which raised concerns that barriers facing culturally and linguistically diverse communities needed to be addressed to ensure availability to inclusive support and responses to domestic violence.

As a result of the report, Women's Safety NSW CEO Hayley Foster said the organisation is seeking legislative reform to improve interpreter services for victims and survivors of domestic or family violence.

Among its recommendations to the Morrison Government, Women's Safety NSW said it should be a requirement for police, courts and other government agencies to offer telephone interpreter services to people from non-English speaking backgrounds, through legislation.

It also recommends the Telephone Interpreter Service (TIS) have a specifically trained team of domestic and family violence interpreters with a key focus on trauma and violence-informed training, to ensure the safety of both the victim and the interpreter.

The need for a trauma-violence trained team of interpreters was highlighted in the report following statements from multicultural domestic and family violence specialists who experienced interpreters ending calls because the details of the trauma was too much for them.

In more severe cases, frontline responders were told of interpreters who had "suicided due to what they hear and they have no support in dealing with the stories and information they hold."

Other statements from frontline responders revealed incidents of interpreters giving misinformation, lacking sensitivity for a victim's state-of-mind, and in rare cases using interpreters known to the victim and their family, leaving victims discouraged to speak about their experience and complicating proceedings.

"Having access to quality interpreter services can make all the difference for vulnerable people when it comes to achieving safety, justice and wellbeing," Ms Foster said.

"It is critical all victims and survivors from non-English speaking backgrounds are afforded access to specially trained domestic and family violence interpreters when accessing support services, dealing with police and courts."

"The safety of victims and survivors depends on access to telephone interpreter services," Ms Foster said.

But even picking up the phone to try to seek help can sometime be difficult when the prompts are in English.

Ms Foster said while the Code of Practice for the NSW Police 'Response to Domestic and Family Violence' stipulates that police must use professional accredited interpreters to communicate with people who are not able to speak or understand English, reports of interpreters failing to turn up or the system failing to book them continue to raise concern for the current state of interpreter services.

"We believe that with the concerted effort of government and service deliverers, this can be achieved over the coming months. We hope to work with government to make this happen," Ms Foster said.

The recommendations are supported by Domestic Violence NSW, whose members also participated in the survey.

Interim CEO of Domestic Violence NSW, Delia Donovan said the role of a interpreter can be crucial in helping victims navigate support services.

"It is essential for each and every stage of the response to domestic and family violence, from the police call-out, engaging support services and in court that victim-survivors have access to specialist interpreter services," Ms Donovan said.

What the survey revealed