STR - Support Time Recovery - Activity 1.2 - The Importance of Language

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STR / Support Time Recovery Training course

VRQ Level 2 Certificate in Mental Health

Answer to Question 1

"Jane is wheelchair bound and needs help when having a bath"

Wheelchair bound is a phrase I personally hate as it makes people sound helpless to me (I am an occasional wheelchair user myself).

Saying that she needs help, especially if she heard could make her feel bad. Not everybody needs help all the time, so people have good and bad days, so its much better to say that she may need help, ask her and give her the freedom of choice.

If having a bath is a problem, then maybe she could have a shower in a disabled friendly bathroom instead, as that would give her more independence and dignity, which would in turn improve her quality of life.

Answer to Question 2

"Everyone has the right to make choices whether normal, abnormal or ill"

Not everybody should have the right to make choices. If a person believed due to their mental state that they could fly then should they be able to choose to jump off a building? If a person is a serious danger to themselves or somebody else then they should not be able make choices where they could put the lives of themselves or others at risk.

Who says what is normal and what is abnormal. I have had mental health problems for many years and if somebody called me abnormal I would be very offended.

1 in 4 people go through some sort of mental distress, if 1 in 4 people were driving Ford Focus cars, then they would be very common and classed as extremely "normal" cars.

Answer to Question 3

"This elderly lady is incontinent of urine"

The elderly part is almost definitely not needed, from the rest of the sentence it is obvious that the person is being shown the service user, so "this person" or "this lady" would still give the same information without reminding them that they may be "elderly", plus to an 18 year old a 50 year old may seem elderly, but that person might find that term very offensive!

Incontinent of urine sounds a strange way of putting it, plus that information should definitely only be given out on a need to know basis. Most people would not be happy with people discussing that they wet themselves.

Answer to Question 4

"Charles is schizophrenic with little insight into his illness"

First of all I would want to know where this conversation took place and if the person being told absolutely needed to know the persons diagnosis? If not then telling even another worker would be breaking the confidentiality rules of most places and disregarding his right to privacy. Charles is schizophrenic also sounds to me to be saying that that is all he is! Saying he has little insight into his illness is very patronising, who is that person to judge, maybe he understands it perfectly, just does not like to talk about it or if it's a recent thing (some people get schizophrenia from birth, but others can just get even one schizophrenic episode) he may understand completely and just be having trouble coming to terms with it.

Answer to Question 5

"There's no point in organising outings, they won't go"

The whole sentence is very negative and pessimistic.

Maybe if the outings were better then they would go? Its important to ask people what they want to do and not just tell them what you think they may like.

Its like a locked door, some people want to stay inside 24/7, but it does not mean they would want to be locked in. Its about choice and knowing that they could go if they wanted too, plus knowing people are trying to plan things for you lets them know somebody is thinking about them.

Finally all places have people leaving and new people arriving, so just because nobody wanted to go last month, does not mean nobody will want to go this month.

Next: STR Activity 1.3 - Promoting Rights
Previous: STR Activity 1.1 - Equal Opportunities

Please note: The contents of the Level 2 Certificate in Mental Health Students workbook are copyrighted, so I have not included any of the questions, purely my answers which are only copyrighted to me! If you have access to the workbook it will make a lot more sense to you. Please do NOT copy my answers and use them as your own, I have just put them here to give you ideas for any parts you may be stuck on.