[Vision2020] Outdated Language Targeted

Wed Feb 10 11:01:13 PST 2010

You'll have to change your vocabulary to communicate in the future:

Changes proposed in how psychiatrists diagnose
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
(AP)
– 13 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Don't say "mental retardation" — the new term is 
"intellectual disability." No more diagnoses of Asperger's syndrome — 
call it a mild version of autism instead. And while "behavioral 
addictions" will be new to doctors' dictionaries, "Internet addiction" 
didn't make the cut.
The American Psychiatric Association is 
proposing major changes Wednesday to its diagnostic bible, the manual 
that doctors, insurers and scientists use in deciding what's officially a mental disorder and what symptoms to treat. In a new twist, it is 
seeking feedback via the Internet from both psychiatrists and the 
general public about whether the changes will be helpful before 
finalizing them.
The manual suggests some new diagnoses. Gambling 
so far is the lone identified behavioral addiction, but in the new 
category of learning disabilities are problems with both reading and 
math. Also new is binge eating, distinct from bulimia because the binge 
eaters don't purge.
Sure to generate debate, the draft also 
proposes diagnosing people as being at high risk of developing some 
serious mental disorders — such as dementia or schizophrenia — based on 
early symptoms, even though there's no way to know who will worsen into 
full-blown illness. It's a category the psychiatrist group's own leaders say must be used with caution, as scientists don't yet have treatments 
to lower that risk but also don't want to miss people on the cusp of 
needing care.
Another change: The draft sets scales to estimate 
both adults and teens most at risk of suicide, stressing that suicide 
occurs with numerous mental illnesses, not just depression.
But 
overall the manual's biggest changes eliminate diagnoses that it 
contends are essentially subtypes of broader illnesses — and urge 
doctors to concentrate more on the severity of their patients' symptoms. Thus the draft sets "autism spectrum disorders" as the diagnosis that 
encompasses a full range of autistic brain conditions — from mild social impairment to more severe autism's lack of eye contact, repetitive 
behavior and poor communication — instead of differentiating between the terms autism, Asperger's or "pervasive developmental disorder" as 
doctors do today.
The psychiatric group expects that overarching 
change could actually lower the numbers of people thought to suffer from mental disorders.
"Is someone really a patient, or just meets 
some criteria like trouble sleeping?" APA President Dr. Alan Schatzberg, a Stanford University psychiatry professor, told The Associated Press. 
"It's really important for us as a field to try not to overdiagnose."
Psychiatry has been accused of overdiagnosis in recent years as prescriptions for 
antidepressants, stimulants and other medications have soared. So the 
update of this manual called the DSM-5 — the Diagnostic and Statistical 
Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition — has been anxiously awaited. 
It's the first update since 1994, and brain research during that time 
period has soared. That work is key to give scientists new insight into 
mental disorders with underlying causes that often are a mystery and 
that cannot be diagnosed with, say, a blood test or X-ray.
"The 
field is still trying to organize valid diagnostic categories. It's 
honest to re-look at what the science says and doesn't say 
periodically," said Ken Duckworth, medical director for the National 
Alliance for the Mentally Ill, which was gearing up to evaluate the 
draft.
The draft manual, posted at http://www.DSM5.org, is up for public debate through April, and it's expected to be lively. 
Among the autism community especially, terminology is considered key to 
describing a set of poorly understood conditions. People with Asperger's syndrome, for instance, tend to function poorly socially but be 
high-achieving academically and verbally, while verbal problems are 
often a feature of other forms of autism.
"It's really important 
to recognize that diagnostic labels very much can be a part of one's 
identity," said Geri Dawson of the advocacy group Autism Speaks, which 
plans to take no stand on the autism revisions. "People will have an 
emotional reaction to this."
Liane Holliday Willey, an author of 
books about Asperger's who also has the condition, said in an e-mail 
that school autism services often are geared to help lower-functioning 
children.
"I cannot fathom how anyone could even imagine they are 
one and the same," she wrote. "If I had put my daughter who has a high 
IQ and solid verbal skills in the autism program, her self-esteem, 
intelligence and academic progress would have shut down."
Terminology also reflects cultural sensitivities. Most patient-advocacy groups 
already have adopted the term "intellectual disability" in place of 
"mental retardation." Just this month, the White House chief of staff, 
Rahm Emanuel, drew criticism from former GOP vice presidential nominee 
Sarah Palin and others for using the word "retarded" to describe some 
activists whose tactics he questioned. He later apologized.
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago contributed to this 
report.
Copyright ©  2010   The 
Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

________________________________
From: Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2008 at yahoo.com>
To: Moscow Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>; Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>
Sent: Tue, February 9, 2010 2:31:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Outdated Language Targeted

People use the term "retarded" in a derogatory manner. I think that is wrong, and what this bill is about. However, "mental retardation" is a medical term which means something specific to people in the medical field. If you change that, it will alter their level of needed care.

Using the term "people with intellectual disabilities" doesn't tell me what I need to know to help that person. It doesn't communicate anything meaningful from medical staff to medical staff. Severe, moderate, or mild mental retardation tell me a great deal. I can use that term universally with a doctor in New Zeland, or a staff member in my own facility, and communicate a great deal of information about the kind of care they need instantly. 

This would be like eliminating grades K-5 and just using the term primary school not to offend K-5 graders. It would be confusing and frustrating to people in the education field. You would not where to put what teachers where and what kind of books or help the students needed, how to budget, or what lesson plans were needed. 

Trying to switch medical terms that are used universally for identifying the needs of persons in Idaho Statues could hurt the people they are trying to help by confusing federal and state agencies as to where resources, funding, and which kinds of medical staff need to go where. 

I think of instead of coming up with new words every ten years that mean the same thing to not offend people, we should not use words in a derogatory, improper, or negative manner. If we want to make up new words, lets make up words to label the people that make fun of people. 

And BTW, I don't think they should use African American to define people that happen to have black skin, because not all people with black skin are African Americans, as I had Jamaican point out me, who was neither African, nor an American. 

Your Friend,

Donovan Arnold

--- On Tue, 2/9/10, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:

>From: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>
>Subject: [Vision2020] Outdated Language Targeted
>To: "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 5:27 PM
>
>
>Courtesy of today's (February 9, 2010) Spokesman-Review.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------
>
>Outdated language targeted
>Bill would cut ‘idiot,’ ‘retarded’ from laws
>Betsy Z. Russell, The Spokesman-Review
>
>BOISE – After Idaho hosted the Special Olympics World Winter Games last
>year, state Sen. Les Bock, D-Boise, said he was startled when reading
>through Idaho statutes to see outmoded terminology like “mentally
>retarded,” “mentally deficient” and even “lunatic” and “idiot.”
>
>Hosting athletes from around the world with mental disabilities, Bock
>said, “I think … made all of us a little more sensitive with respect to
>some of the language we use.”
>
>So the Boise attorney began working with state officials to search through
>state laws and found lots of that kind of wording. A half-dozen meetings
>followed with state Health and
> Welfare officials, the Idaho Council on
>Developmental Disabilities, the courts, the state Department of Insurance
>and more.
>
>In the end, Bock came up with an 84-page bill to update the wording in
>several sections of Idaho state law, from the probate code (which referred
>to “a decedent, an infant, lunatic or insolvent”) to the death penalty
>(which included a section headed, “Imposition of death penalty upon
>mentally retarded person prohibited”).
>
>As the bill took shape, a section about “Contracts of Idiots” became
>“Contracts of Persons Without Understanding.” A clause about vocational
>education programs that said “handicapped students” was switched to
>“students with disabilities.”
>
>When Bock presented the bill Monday to the Idaho Senate Judiciary and
>Rules Committee, state Sen. Shirley McKague, R-Meridian, asked if it would
>penalize people who use the outdated terms.
> Bock said no. “That’s not in
>the bill,” he said.. “It’s not about requiring people to speak in a certain
>way. It’s about the language in the statute.”
>
>Bock said the Special Olympics, which drew international attention to
>Idaho and brought hundreds of Idahoans out as volunteers to help with the
>games, opened his eyes about language referring to people with
>disabilities.
>
>“We shouldn’t be labeling them in a way that’s disrespectful,” he said.
>
>State Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, noted that the long bill also,
>in one instance, changes the term “Afro-American” to “African-American.”
>Bock said that was simply a matter of updating a term that’s no longer in
>use.
>
>The bill also, in several instances, changes the word “handicapped” to
>“impaired,” and removes the term “the mentally retarded” in favor of
>“people with intellectual disabilities.”
> In all cases, Bock said, “the
>goal was absolutely no change in the substance of the law.”
>
>The Senate committee voted unanimously to introduce the bill. To become
>law, it still needs to survive full committee hearings and votes in both
>houses, plus receive the governor’s signature.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------
>
>Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
>Tom Hansen
>Moscow, Idaho
>
>"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
>and the Realist adjusts his sails."
>
>- Unknown
>
>
>=======================================================
>List services made available by First Step Internet, 
>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
>               http://www.fsr.net/                 
>      
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>=======================================================
> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20100210/97975077/attachment-0001.html 