Language Sensitivity In Mental Health

Interacting with individuals with mental illness is bound to bring up questions and uncertainty with regards to the use of sensitive language (SL). Sensitive language, in the context of mental health, encompasses being aware of the client’s needs and adjusting them accordingly to the situation as well as actively listening to the client. Unfortunately, through my mental health studies, I have noticed that even academic articles written about individuals with mental illnesses have their faults. I found that this month’s articles did not acknowledge the lack of knowledge about how language sensitivity may reduce the stigma surrounding mental health. Stigma can be characterized as “labelling, stereotyping….and practices such as disapproval (Poole

Second, it will relate the importance of language sensitivity in mental health to my field placement experience. Finally, the essay will look at language as a tool of communal empowerment. Using SL as a mental health practitioner will not only strengthen the therapeutic relationship, but also empower the client to reach out to their communal resources.
To start off, this month’s readings do not give us much to go on in terms of language sensitivity as a way to reduce stigma surrounding mental health. That is a large reason why I am taking this course, so that when I interact with future clients with mental health issues I can communicate with them smoothly without being afraid of asking a question or making an inappropriate comment without realizing its connotations. Statistics for Canada show that “only one-third of those who need mental health services in Canada actually receive them (Regehr & Glancy, 2014, p. 2)” which may underline that stigma may be present in Canadian societies and its mental health systems. But, if stigma is in fact present in Canadian society, as per statistic mentioned above, then how come the Plan d’action en

SL) in mental health practice can serve as a way to isolate individuals, it can also serve to create a distinct community. Cecile Rousseau (1993) describes in her article that community empowerment through offering alternative resources is a way to increase decision making power and access to communities that are more popular in comparison to hospitals. In the 19th and early part of the 20th century, it was believed that the only way to treat mental illness was to contain people both physically and mentally (Fleury & Grenier, 2004). In recent years, the institutionalization approach moved towards a community approach (Rousseau, 1993) where individuals were transferred from hospitals to communities (Fleury & Grenier, 2004, p. 24-25). Alternative resources consist of a bottom-up approach instead of top-down approach (Rousseau, 1993, p. 540). Which can be translated into putting decision making powers into the hands of community as opposed to government authorities or professionals. In summary, vocabulary can be essential for a client to understand their diagnosis and to building a communal