22nd August 2024
What language do you use?
A blog by Gavin Street, Communication and Marketing Lead for Personalisation, It's All About People Programme
Language and how we use it is always at the top of our thinking in the It’s All About People Team. It’s a key thread that runs through all our work and planning.
We’re working to embed personalised approaches across the county and, through Our Shared Agreement, build a better relationship between health and care and the people of Lincolnshire. But this can’t succeed unless we’re all making better use of language.
Language is, of course, a huge subject and one we’re exploring in depth - we're creating helpful guidance and resources to promote better conversations and relationships between the public and health and care providers.
This work has naturally prompted the It’s All About People team to discuss our own experiences with the language of health and care – and what follows are some of the thoughts I’ve shared.
Our ‘Professional’ language
I started working for the NHS three years ago – my first role in the health and care sector.
One of the things I vividly recall about that time was particular meetings – or more accurately, how I struggled to keep up with what was being discussed in them.
Was the content too difficult? No, but the ‘professional’ language used to communicate it was so liberally laced with jargon and acronyms that I was left floundering.
Too embarrassed to ask for clarification, I’d discretely scribble unknown terms and acronyms in my notepad to check later.
These meetings left me feeling out of my depth and ‘locked out’. And I’m not alone in this – many colleagues have admitted to sharing the same experience and feeling a similar way.
I want to say, three years later, this doesn’t happen anymore, but it does. What’s different, though, is when a colleague casually drops in a new 'professional' word, term, or acronym, I immediately ask them what it means. And I certainly don’t feel any shame for doing so – it feels right to challenge the language we choose to use.
Do we think enough about the language we use?
OK, I understand that many programmes, companies, sectors or industries have their own language.
I worry, though, that this is often so deeply entrenched, that we no longer think about it, or question why we continue to use it. Who is it for?
Despite endless references to how ‘person-centred’ we are in the health and care sector, the language we use often suggests that systems and processes are really what's at the centre of our practice, not people.
We don’t think enough about how our language makes people feel, whether that be fellow professionals or, more critically, the people we support.
Language and the people we support
My Mum has several long-term conditions and last year was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She is cared for by my Dad.
As Mum has required more support, Dad’s not only had to adjust to an increasingly challenging situation, he’s also contending with a new language. And he often finds communication with health and care providers a struggle when it should be a source of support.
With this new language, yes, Mum is now a ‘Person with long-term conditions’ and ‘Person living with Dementia’ rather than a ‘service user’, ‘client’ or ‘patient’. But she’s still on ‘pathways’, with a ‘care package’, being ‘referred’, ‘placed’, ‘screened’, ‘reviewed’ and ‘assessed’ for ‘procedures’.
This is a language that speaks for and works for the system, not for Dad. It creates a new, clinical reality that makes him feel as I did in those meetings - "out of my depth" and on the outside of things. And this ‘professional’ language also works to take something away from Mum – make her less a person, somehow – at a time when we already face losing her a little every day because of her Alzheimer’s.
Closing thoughts
The language we use not only describes our reality, it creates it.
When used with thought and consideration, our words have the power to make people feel involved, valued, encouraged, and supported. But when applied without thought, they can confuse, diminish, undermine, or exclude certain people and their experiences.
Ironically, the very same language we adopt as part of our professional identity and to feel included, so often excludes not only those we work alongside, but, more worryingly, the people we’re employed to support.
That’s why it’s important to challenge the entrenched ‘professional’ language of health and care.
We need to change the way we talk with people and about people and embed our commitment to a personalised approach by reflecting this in the words we choose to use.
We need to remove the barriers we create through our use of jargon and acronyms and use a common language everyone can understand, with ordinary, honest, compassionate, and respectful words that make sense to us all, and make us all feel included and valued.
So, what language will you use?
More information about It's All About People and Our Shared Agreement
As mentioned at the top of this article, these personal thoughts have been prompted by a larger exploration of language the It’s All About People team are currently undertaking. We’re in the process of putting together guidance and resources around better use of language, and all the benefits that can bring, very soon, so we’ll keep you posted.
The It’s All About People team is working to embed person-centred approaches across Lincolnshire’s integrated health and care system. The team is made up of staff that are employed by NHS organisations, Lincolnshire County Council and the Voluntary / Community / Social Enterprise sector. Working alongside this team are a number of volunteers with lived experience of using the services in the county.
For more information about It’s All About People, including films, podcasts, blogs, tools, resources, opportunities to get involved, latest news and how to connect with the team, visit It’s all about people :: Lincolnshire STP (itsallaboutpeople.info)
For more information about Our Shared Agreement – and to join the movement - visit Our Shared Agreement :: Lincolnshire STP (itsallaboutpeople.info).
