For doctors, trained and privileged to accept varying degrees of responsibility for another's health problems, changing the terms can feel like a loss of personal identity for both parties. Recovery-oriented practice highlights the importance of the language we use and its relationship to personal meaning, and has much to offer.
However, its scope can make a cow-catcher on the front of a road train look discriminating. If we discard traditional language, do we risk terminally betraying our medical roots and their values? Would doing so not simply confirm the perceived divisions between mental and physical health, and inadvertently compound stigma?
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