Choose your words carefully!
Published this morning, this PLOS Blogs Public Health post highlights a really important issue in healthcare and interventions. The post discusses how the very language we use to refer to a group of people can be inherently stigmatizing, even if our actions and intentions are to help those people. Most notably, instead of saying an “X person” we should be saying “a person with X”, i.e. a person with schizophrenia instead of a schizophrenic. This slight adjustment prioritizes the identity as a person, rather than further stigmatizing the condition. Even more importantly, this piece asks the question of why we should differentiate mental health from other types of health; doesn’t health encompass all aspects of the person, especially since issues of health so often pertain to multiple domains? The post includes a list of several arenas in which a language change is needed, so more than anything, here is one way that you can start making a difference now!
April 10th, 2013 at 9:48 am
I couldn’t agree more with this post! As a creative arts therapy volunteer, I work with adults who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. These men and women will be the first ones to tell you how damaging it is to their self-esteem to be branded (oftentimes unintentionally) by others in this manner. When speaking to others it is very important to be conscious of not only your word choice but the way you phrase things so that you do not unintentionally offend another or contribute to their perception of what Steele termed “stereotype threat.” According to Steele, stereotype threat is the fear that we will confirm the stereotypes that others have regarding the group of which we are a member. To learn more about Steele’s research see the attached link:
http://psycnet.apa.org/psycarticles/1996-12938-001.html