Editorial
Language that puts people first
Friday, May 27, 2005
As we continue our quest for care practices that put the resident first, consider what the community living movement calls person-first language.

The community living movement is working hard to ensure people with intellectual disabilities are included in all aspects of community life as full citizens. The movement works to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities know their rights and are able to exercise them, have access to work and education opportunities, and are included as full citizens in community.

The language we use shapes our thoughts and impressions, as well as our relationships. That’s why the use of person-first language is important to the community living movement.

The idea behind person-first language is to put the person first, not his or her disability. People should be seen for who they are and their place in a network of relationships, and should not be defined by a disability. We would say, Samantha has an intellectual disability, not Samantha is intellectually disabled.

To borrow an example from Kathie Snow, who advocates for person-first language, instead of saying “He is myopic,” we would say, “He wears glasses.” Instead of “He is demented,” we would say, “He has dementia,” or better, “He is a person with dementia.” This way the person is not labelled or defined by their diagnosis, but by their personhood.

We are reminded that we are in a relationship with a person who has a diagnosis, and we are not in a relationship with the diagnosis.

Too often in medical care settings we are confronted by mechanistic thought, an approach that defines us according to our problem. Our experience of the health system can be very impersonal as a result. People are not the dementia they have, people are not the disease they have. If our language defines people as patients, as a diagnosis or a condition, we run the risk of shaping attitudes that exclude the whole of a person’s character and community role in favour of technical, or stereotypical terms, terms that in the end are dehumanizing.

The reverse is also true. The simple act of auditing our language will give us pause to again consider each person for who they are, not their immediate condition or diagnosis. Over time the language we use will shape the way we, and others, see the people we serve.

Person-first language puts people first in thought and action.