A Rose Still Smells as Sweet

This is an old rant of mine.

Once upon a time, I worked in the mental health services as first a mental health worker, and later as a counselor. I spent 10 years in this field.

When I first started out, we called the people we were helping “patients”. A few years later, we were told to now call them “clients”. Yet, again, a few years later, we were told that these people were “consumers”.

We were told this was all in an effort to remove the stigma from having a mental illness.

Yet, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, etc are still called illnesses. They are diagnosed, and treated with many medical interventions like medicine. Sounds like they are patients to me.

I didn’t even mind “client”. It implies a contractual relationship, whereby someone goes to a professional to receive services to solve a problem. It has a certain feeling of positive action on the part of the person seeking help.

But, “consumer”? It seems (to me) to imply a “consuming of resources”, without bringing anything to the table. When in fact no medical intervention will be completely successful without the “patient” actively participating in their treatment plan.

My other argument has to do with the effort to remove a stigma that is attached to mental illness. The stigma is not attached to the name “patient”, or “client”; it attached to the illness. No matter how many times they change the name, it does not change the nature of the illness. Until we address this issue head on instead of cloaking it in fancy name changes every few years, the stigma will remain.

These people suffer enough. Dealing with mental illness is a lifelong process, often with painful relapses. Just the struggle to find the right medications can be an ordeal. I think that people who are actively dealing with their illnesses deserve to be recognized for their heroic efforts.