Question by psych_central: Mental Health Consumers?
There was quite a fury on a blog site of mental health Advocates claiming that the term “consumer” is degrading, “Mental Health” is stigmatizing, “patient” is discriminating and so on. That these terms should be banned. They also feel that dx’s are “labels”by which they should not be refereed to as having. I’m into advocacy and peer counseling but am I the only one to think this is “crazy”? I was a patient, a consumer, I had a mental health problem and I didn’t have any problems with it. I ‘d love to hear your opinions.

Best answer:

Answer by R
I think this is a perfect example of a lot of energy wasted on something trivial. Until you mentioned the blog, I never thought the term “consumer” degrading. Patient – well “patients” go to the doctor’s office. Some dx’s are necessary. If you couldn’t use labels then people would have unrealistic expectations placed on them, because they couldn’t use the “label” that gives them a handicap. Ok “handicap” may not be too politically correct, but for the sake of brevity…. If you are bipolar and can’t say you are bipolar, then someone may just say you’re ‘crazy’ or ‘lazy’, ‘weird’, you know where that’s going.

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Patient Counseling – From the University of the Immaculate Conception Pharmacy Department 2013.

 

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