I wrote this to
          the director of the federal Center for Mental Health
          Services (DHHS/PHS/SAMHSA/CMHS) after a meeting I went to in
          Washington.
          
          
          
          Language
          
               I was shamed by the language that too many
               speakers used during last week, language that
               creates stigma, discrimination, and patronizing,
               distancing sympathy.  It was hard not to react
               with tears or defense.  The examples below are
               all words used by presenters during the meeting. 
               I suggest you emphasize to staff and guests to: 
          
               Use language of acceptance and inclusion.
          
                         Do not speak of the
                         tragedy, horror, or
                         life-crushing burden of
                         mental illness.  
          
               Use people first language.
          
                         Do not refer to mentally
                         ill loved ones, the
                         mentally ill, the
                         seriously mentally ill,
                         the severely mentally
                         ill,  the
                         psychiatrically
                         disabled.  Do not use
                         diagnoses as predicate
                         nouns.  See the language
                         used by the Americans
                         with Disabilities Act.
          
               Speak of us neutrally or as survivors, not
               as victims.
          
                         Never say about someone
                         else that they suffer
                         with mental illness.  Do
                         not speak of our
                         desperate need.  Revise
                         the CSP description of
                         the people served to
                         substitute "experience
                         mental illness" for
                         "suffer with mental
                         illness."
          
                    Use the input of consumers to build
                    a body of understanding.
          
                         Stop dismissing what we
                         say by singularizing us:
                         "But you aren't
                          representative."
          
                    Change the name of the ADULT SERIOUS
                    MENTAL ILLNESS Branch.
          
                         Think about the image
                         that etches for every
                         employee, for everyone
                         who reads an
                         organization chart, for
                         everyone who reads a
                         letter from that branch.
          
                    Learn about the cross-disability
                    movement.  Use a health model. 
          
                         Understand how the language of
                         victimization and sympathy and
                         deficit distances,
                         stigmatizes, condescends,
                         demeans, diminishes,
                         patronizes, shames, is
                         paternalistic, fosters
                         dependence, and allows human
                         beings to be seen by other
                         human beings as objects.  The
                         charitable model (Jerry Lewis'
                         telethon, the Alliance for the
                         Mentally Ill) uses all these
                         negative images to raise funds
                         and get votes for services. 
          
          
          I don't want to uplift you with my pain.  I want respect,
          pride, understanding, acceptance.
          
          Paraphrasing Weick, Words express and interpret; words
          include and exclude; words matter.  
          
          Karl E Weick, _Sensemaking in Organizations, Sage, 1995, p
          132