What terms and language should be used
Most mental health problems result from a complex interaction of biological, social and psychological factors and it can be misleading to think of someone’s problems solely as an illness that requires medical treatment. Some people, therefore, prefer to use the terms mental or emotional distress rather than mental illness.
It is also important that we avoid referring to a person solely by their mental health problem. For example, if we refer to someone as a ‘schizophrenic’ or ‘depressive’ this is stigmatising and can be damaging. It is important to look at the whole person, not just a label. We wouldn’t call someone experiencing cancer, a ‘cancer’ but we may say that person has cancer. Similarly, it is important to recognise that the mental health problem is only one part of the person and for many may only be a relatively small part. It is also important to think about our everyday language; words like, ‘nutter’, ‘crazy’, ‘mental’ are degrading and hurtful.
Always refer to the person, not the label. For example: a friend, nurse, teacher, colleague etc experiencing mental distress, depression or schizophrenia, rather than a ‘depressive’ or a ‘schizophrenic’.