Does Anyone Care about Names? How Attendees at Substance Misuse Services Like to Be Addressed by Health Professionals. Keaney F, Strang J et al. European Addiction Research 2004 10;2:75-79
Dear Colleagues,
At last somebody has asked drug addicts/users in treatment what they would like to be called. “Patients” is the consensus, at least in London. According to these authors, the use of ‘client’ to refer to a patient dates back to at least 1970, when the nursing faculty at Wichita State University considered the term ‘patient’ inappropriate for the healthy seeking health-maintenance advice or going for an annual physical examination. The authors quote Wing: “The recent trend to refer to people seeking health care as “clients” implies to me a component of human interaction that I would expect in the business world rather than in a trusting helping relationship”. ‘Patients’ also have a status and traditional rights which pre-date modern consumer laws.
In a survey of 150 mixed dependency patients, ‘service user’ was the least popular term, identified as the preferred term by only 5% of subjects. “Patient” was preferred by 66% of alcoholics, 52% of opioid users but only 47% of smokers in treatment. “Client”was only preferred by 24% of alcoholics, 46% of illicit drug users and 41% of smokers in treatment.
While only a minority considered that they personally had a ‘mental illness’ (38%), most considered that ‘substance misuse problems’ formed a category of mental health illness (59%). The authors state: ‘Commonly used pejorative terms such as ‘alki’ or ‘junkie’ prejudice appropriate care and add to stigmatisation’.
Thus the majority here preferred the term ‘patient’, going against current trends in dependency treatment services for the wider use of the term ‘client’.
They conclude: “In a culture of ‘user involvement’ in substance misuse, the results of this study should prompt reconsideration and revision of our verbal and written communications with patients”.
Comments by Andrew Byrne ..
