Noted, thanks, I hadn't realised all the issues with my wording.Aussiegav said:stone said:washing dementia patients or whatever.
This more of an educational post in general. Having been a clinical lead for a complex dementia unit and seen how the disease impacts people, I have a strong stance about the term dementia patient.
Please don’t refer to people as dementia patients.
They are people first and foremost and remain that way until they die.
Reducing their worth to a term of a disease is degrading and dehumanising.
It’s tragic when dementia impacts on a person’s life and that of their loved ones, let’s keep recognising that they are a person with a life story, not a refer to them as a disease.
Language is powerful
Would "people with dementia" be the way to phrase it ?
I'm sort of taken aback by your correction since I've very much viewed myself as being a patient when ill. I still feel a sort of vague tribal solidarity with "cancer patients" and "psychiatric patients" much as I do with eg other climbers. I do consider it a facet of my identity I guess.
Part of me wonders whether by tip-toeing around something we are implicitly casting it as being shameful. When we refer to someone as "a climber" we are not reducing their worth to just the past time they enjoy, it is just the aspect of them that happens to be relevant in that context.