{"id":333,"date":"2014-09-09T08:30:45","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T12:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/?p=333"},"modified":"2014-09-01T21:07:31","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T01:07:31","slug":"people-come-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/2014\/09\/09\/people-come-first\/","title":{"rendered":"People come first!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"People<\/a>Many of you have heard an anecdote about a patient who was in a hospital, and the patient\u2019s family member was horrified and angry to overhear a doctor talking to the nurse about the \u201cS.O.B.\u201d in room XXX\u2026 only to discover that the doctor was using an abbreviation of the diagnosis, \u201cshortness of breath.\u201d More recently I have heard or seen people refer to autistic children, ADHD\u2019ers, schizophrenics, the cancer guy\u2026and more.\u00a0 Wait a minute \u2013 are our patients defined by their diagnoses?\u00a0 Do WE want to be defined by our own diagnoses?<\/p>\n

Several years ago I received a compliment from a director of mental health services at a community agency where some graduate students were conducting research.\u00a0 She noticed that these Etown students used person-first language.\u00a0 The students consistently referred to the clients as \u201cpeople with mental illness.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, they truly \u201cgot it\u201d- that we interact with people\u2026and a diagnosis should not define anyone.\u00a0 A diagnosis may be part of who we are, but should it be the first thing that people think of?<\/p>\n

On the flip side, some advocacy groups don’t want to appear as too sensitive and do not recommend using person-first language. \u00a0Some groups of people are proud of who they are, the challenges they have overcome, and see their disability or condition as part of their normal lives or their culture.<\/p>\n

So, how do we use language and other forms of communication to demonstrate respect and caring for those we may encounter as therapists? \u00a0Do you use person-first language? \u00a0Why or why not? \u00a0What do you think about this?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many of you have heard an anecdote about a patient who was in a hospital, and the patient\u2019s family member was horrified and angry to overhear a doctor talking to the nurse about the \u201cS.O.B.\u201d in room XXX\u2026 only to …<\/p>\n

People come first!<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hot-topics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions\/341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/ot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}