About 75,491 young Brits and children visit major hospital Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments in England for mental health concerns each year.
But NHS guidance at one Trust suggests these people should no longer be referred to as patients.
While a ‘patient’ is defined as a person who receives medical care, treatment, or attention from a healthcare provider like a doctor, dentist or hospital, the Sussex Health and Care language guide suggests replacing the word ‘patient’ with some more ambiguous alternatives.
It may have been published just over a year ago, but this guidance from the NHS trust has now made headlines as those on social media brand it ‘silly’ and confusing.
Instead of referring to someone as a patient, it suggests calling them a ‘service leader‘, ‘expert by experience‘, ‘consumer‘ or ‘person with a mental illness‘.
The guide reads: ‘These are not a list of rules, but instead an opportunity to
prompt us all to think about the language that we currently use.’
It states these alternatives are meant to make things ‘clearer’ and more ‘person-centred’, while being accessible to more people.
But, those on social media didn’t agree. ‘Poor patient would need to ask for an interpreter just to know what the “new language” is,’ wrote one person on YouTube.
‘Seems a little silly,’ added another, while someone dubbed it ‘utter drivel’.
Dr Lucy Hooper, private GP and co-founder of Coyne Medical, and UKCP- registered psychotherapist Dr Ali Ross, agree this language change doesn’t do anything to benefit those seeking medical support.
‘I don’t think “patient” is such an awful word,’ Dr Hooper tells Metro. ‘After all, all of us will be patients at some point in our lives.
‘The word itself actually comes from the Latin pati, meaning to suffer or endure. Thinking about the origin of the word is a really important reminder that when someone is coming to us for healthcare, they may be worried, scared or unwell, and they deserve our utmost care and attention.
‘It’s that level of caring that should be our focus, not the label.’
Dr Ali Ross thinks these alternative labels are ‘confusing’, whereas the word ‘patient’ is useful.
‘I’m not enamoured by a “service leader” because unless they’re actually leading a service, then it’s just inaccurate,’ he tells Metro.
‘With “expert by experience”, in some ways that’s a fantastic thing to facilitate, understanding that they know their own bodies, so in that sense you’re an expert, but it’s also okay to be an expert in a profession.
‘It’s just about wielding that expertise responsibly and not using it to shut the other person down and say “you’re wrong, I’m right”.’
Dr Hooper worries that we’re watching NHS language become less accessible, suggesting these changes could start ‘to sound like management consultancy speak’.
It could cause more confusion
When it comes to dealing with mental health specifically, Dr Ross says those who are having ‘a psychic break or are dipping in and out of reality will struggle’ if they’re being referred to as a service leader.
‘When people are confused enough in their circumstances, they understand they’re the patient and they’re seeking help from you – that’s a simple enough transaction,’ he explains.
The psychotherapist also worries these alternative terms could create unnecessary ambiguity.
‘If you’re just en mass blanketing everybody with a mental health term without the subtlety of whether it’s postnatal depression, complex PTSD or schizoaffective disorder, it’s like, where on the spectrum are we talking here? It could be one episode or it could be lifelong,’ he adds.
It’s not about language, it’s about action
‘How we treat patients and value them matters far more than the label we give them,’ Dr Hooper says.
‘That means really listening to patients and involving them early, for example when a new service is being designed, rather than simply sending them a survey or inviting them to a focus group when the decision has effectively already been made.’
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Dr Ross adds that ‘almost no one cared’ what their term was in the NHS system when he worked with a trust.
‘What they cared about was the care they were receiving, and really, as soon as you have an ongoing relationship with any patient, you just call them by their preferred term which is normally their first name,’ he explains.
Ultimately, both experts believe healthcare should always be about how we can look after our patients, ‘not about finding the best label for them or for how we do it’.
In response to the backlash, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust told Metro: ‘This is a guide, not Trust policy. It was developed with people who use mental health services and staff to respond to feedback that certain language discouraged some from accessing NHS support.’
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