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Originally Posted by sweetpea
You obviously have never been next to a 'developmentally disabled' individual when someone calls them mentally retarded... it's a slap in the face to them and these individuals find it hurtful, that's all i was saying...
i don't go out of my way to hurt ppl, so if using a broad term makes my clients more comfortable... then i'm gonna use it.
sweetpea
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First of all, many people are offended by using the word "disabled" to describe ANYONE. Also, kids will catch onto this trend, and soon enough 6th graders will be calling other kids "D-D's" and that term will become offensive. Then, the PC crowd will have to find a new and improved PC way to say it... perhaps "Pre-emptively happy folk". It's a viscious cycle. It only has a negative connotation becuase people LET it. If you mean something in a negative way, almost any word or term can hurt someone's feelings... if that person lets it. Perhaps a good thing to do while working with "retards" "developmentally disbaled" "special needs" or whatever people is to teach them that there is no wrong in being who they are, regardless of what somebody calls them. If they're high functioning enough to be offended, they are high functioning enough to learn to not be. As far as I'm concerned, the therapists and social workers these days that fall into this PC crowd are just enablers.
In short, your clients (note that even in mental facitilities the term "client" is used more often than "patient" now... just to make them feel better) can learn to not be so sensitive to people who DO try to hurt them. If I wanted to upset a "client" of yours, I could certainly do it without calling them retarded.