Psychiatric Bulletin (2001) 25: 154. doi: 10.1192/pb.25.4.154
© 2001 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Psychiatric Bulletin (2001) 25: 154
© 2001 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Patient or client?
Alison J Gray, Senior Registrar
West Midlands Rotation, St Anne's Orchard, Worcester Road, LinkTop,
Malvern, Worcestershire WR14 2EZ
Correspondence: e-mail:
ajgpsych{at}yahoo.co.uk
Sir: The use of terms for those who experience mental health difficulties
is contentious and political. It is also above all dependent on context. I am
not at all surprised that Ritchie et al (Psychiatric
Bulletin, December 2000, 24, 447-450) found the term
‘patient’ was preferred by out-patient attendees, I regularly use
the term patient without complaint for those who are currently receiving
treatment.
However, there needs to be a term for those who have received such
treatment in the past and who have a legitimate interest in the workings of
the mental health services. ‘Patient’ is not an appropriate term
to identify, for example, someone sitting on a planning committee who is there
by virtue of having a personal experience of mental illness. We need a term
for this and most people in this category accept the term ‘service
user’.
Some people prefer to be called ‘survivors’ and when you listen
to their experiences of mental health services this can seem quite
appropriate. I would suggest asking people how they identify themselves and
then showing them the courtesy of using their preferred term. The suggestion
from Hodgkiss (Psychiatric Bulletin, December 2000, 24, 441)
that user involvement and empowerment might be derailed by a name change is
like expecting a juggernaut to be stopped by a pea. Service user involvement
is here to stay. There is a lot of energy in the user/survivor movement (see,
for example,
http://www.madpride.net
).
We should be working with ‘service users’ in order to improve
services for our ‘patients’; some of whom may be the same people
in a different context.
