You can't say that!

It's when the fur babies cross over the rainbow bridge that I lose the will to live

As a hospital SW I was told by the powers above that the patient I was seeing was not a dwarf but was vertically challenged. I discussed this with the patient who said: "I am a dwarf, I was born a dwarf and I will die a dwarf." Good for him!

Brilliant!

Funny thread. I have a "sensitive bladder" so must not laugh too much.

When I did a course at work we were told thar it was offensive to say "a disabled person" it was "a person with a disability". "wheelchair user" rather than "wheelchair bound" and "Person with a hearing imlarement" instead of "a deaf person".

We thought it was nonsense until we were shown a video of people with disabilities who explained the reasons why. It was a real eye opener, showing that people did not want to be defined by their disability.

* Miss Adventure*,surely that should be a bladder with sensitivities!

I can understand this to a certain extent as I'm not Disabled. I'm Unabled. There are things - like walking any distance or standing for any length of time - that I have big problems with, but I'm not Disabled. Without my specs I am sight impaired, but not blind. Without my hearing aids I have a hearing impairment but I'm not deaf.

However, I do think things are getting silly. Everyone, surely, is a person of colour, many of us changing colour with the season. I have big problems with ethnicity as it seems to depend on a person's own point of view and how they wish to be seen. That is a minefield.

And as for bodily functions my DD2 was only asking yesterday about Feminine Freshness as she had been told that it stopped being a problem after the menopause!

At work, we used, years ago, to refer to the people who lived in homes as 'residents'. They've been all manner of titles since then. 'Service users', 'customers', and so on. Now they are 'people'. A rose by any other name, and all that..

Nobody dies these days, they just pass away or even just 'pass'.

As one of a family of very short sighted people. we are happy to be short sighted and to describe some one making a decision with out looking ahead as short sighted. It is such a good description. When you are shortsighted that is exactly what happens, you can see what is in front of your nose, but cannot see what is on the other side of the room.

DH will be a service user at a local health service provider on 22nd July as they are going to perform a medical procedure. Actually he'll be a patient in the local hospital where he's going to have an operation.

The most important thing is what the individual with a disability thinks. Their opinions vary - as with the dwarf above.

There was an interesting thread on Mumsnet recently about the teaching in school about sex. Apparently the school had bought in a package for the presentation of these facts and there was a major error in it. The teaching guidelines described the external female genitalia as a vagina, which is clearly inaccurate. One mother had a very long discussion with the head about it and was told that the package would be taught as bought rather than the accurate word vulva used. How mindless is that?!

An acquaintance told me yesterday that his wife had 'gone spastic' following a seizure . I was surprised that we was unaware that the term is no longer acceptable. He got angry with me when I gently suggested that he found another way to describe her movements!

This sort of 'correct' value free language far from breaking down barriers and overcoming negative perceptions actually builds barriers between service providers aka doctors, nurses and other medical staff and service users, better known as patients.

I think it is time us poor mutts, rose in protest and insisted on social providers break down the barriers they erect between service provider and service user, stop using this silly jargon, because this is what it is and talk the same language as everybody else.

Shysal I think the term "spastic" is a valid medical description about the way the muscles are contracted and particularly if someone has had a siezure. However it certainly depends on where and when it is used.

I am fairly indifferent to the words or phrases people use as long as they do not offend, but I do find the terms 'passed' as in died and 'furbabies' as in pets make my teeth clench.

A lot of what were acceptable expressions or words have been used as insults over the years, and are now frowned on..

Furbabies is just awful!! I can't bear twee words used by grown ups.

Quite often it is the PC brigade who insist on this ridiculous labelling. The people concerned are usually down to earth about it as with the dwarf. I can understand people not wanting to be defined by their disability.

The world is going mad!!

A family friend living in a home for people with mental disabilities is no longer a patient. She now has to be referred to as a client.

Spasticity is a medical term:
Spasticity is defined as exaggerated muscle tone with increased tendon reflexes. Spasm describes violent reflexive muscle contraction which occur in response to cutaneous and visceral stimulation.

I really wish people would just say it as it is. When I was a small child of 3 my mother died. I was told she had gone to live with the angels, and I have the evidence written in my baby book which stopped on that day! A few years later my father married again and I gained a step mother who turned into the wicked step mother. I could never understand why my mother didn't come back from living with the angels to look after us again. My younger sister was even more perplexed as she was treated the worst by the stepmother and took years to get over it. My father never explained anything, mind you he had Aspergers syndrome and communication was not his strong point. So if someone dies, even a pet, they have not gone for a long sleep, to live with the angels or whatever. They have died and will not be back.

Lucky Girl is right - its up to the individual.
Even if you ask each person how they would prefer their problem to be labelled there is inconsistency. Some find disabled offensive, others say that is the best word.
I agree with M0nica about the short-sighted tag. It describes my daughters eyesight in a way that people understand.
The trouble with or advantage of the blanket word disabled is that it leaves the individual the obligation or option to explain further.