Last week, I shared a few of my least favorite phrases and asked for some of yours in return. Well, before the internet server crashes occurred across the eastern seaboard, due to the rush of your responses, we seemed to get the message that a nerve was touched. Your responses brought to life the power that words have to heal or harm. In the same way that loving and comforting words can bring much needed peace and serenity to those around us, thoughtlessly cruel words can bring suffering and pain at a time when we already have more than enough of those emotions to deal with in our lives.

In 1994, when we published our first writers guidelines for Today's Caregiver magazine and caregiver.com, we stated that we would not accept certain terms such as "victim", or that a person was "suffering with" a disease or illness. We also wanted our writers to think hard before using the term "patient" in an article. Many of those concepts are also reflected in your responses. Actually, it may surprise you that the word I have had the most problem with, as does one of our respondents, is "caregiver".

Responses

I am absolutely a believer in the idea that words DO matter...continued

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"Caretaker" instead of "caregiver."..continued

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Are you getting help?...continued

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I so enjoy your newsletter every week, and this week's really hit a nerve!...continued

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My problem is with the use of the word...continued

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Thanks for the kvetch about parenting parents or role reversal...continued

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Use of medical terms to identify someone…continued

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One of the phrases I have trouble with is...continued

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I find that people call stroke survivors stroke “victims”...continued

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This is not a phrase, but I am bothered by the way people...continued

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Wheelchair bound, He's (she's) a medi-lift. diabetic...continued

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It might just be that I've been having a string of sleep impaired...continued

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I'm pretty sure this isn't what you were after...continued

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He or she, when Fred or Ethel are in the room...continued

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By the way, we really do need to come up with some more creative phrases for "adult undergarments".  That always makes me think of knickers and I don't think anyone has used the word knickers since the turn of the last century.

 

Gary Barg
Editor-in-Chief
gary@caregiver.com