How do you describle a patient with Mental Disabilities on a PCR

[cosgrojo]

Legal...... Yes

Appropriate.... No

Special Ed teacher does not validate this nonsense at all.

Mental health is a slow moving underfunded entity. Any progress they make is very important and the "R" word has been thrown out years ago.

Developmentally challenged is the preferred term.

Mobey- I take no offense to your reply... but will add that if the term is both a universally accepted medical term, and legally accepted on HIPPA covered documents, then it is certainly "appropriate" to use it in EMS documentation.

I believe that in my original post I expressed my own reticence at the word... but that has more to do with my own value judgments. I often find that the people afflicted with these issues and families that are deeply involved react far less violently to these words than I do when I hear them.

The "R" word has not been thrown out for years. Maybe in the place of the all-encompassing term you refer to it as... but as a specific definition for specific diagnoses, it is still around my friend. There are a hundred different labels that kids these days fall under in special Ed. Kids get labeled different things for issues with speech, behavior (aggressive, passive, delayed etc.), Math ability, language ability, physical development, emotional development, and a whole lot more. MR is still used to identify specific children who do not show any one deficiency, and therefore cannot be sub-categorized. The "R" word may cause consternation in your politically correct mind-set, mobey, but it is used all the time in clinical environments and is an important term for school systems and mental health facilities not only to figure out treatment and development plans for the students, but is important to get the funding they require from the State.

Edited July 20, 2009 by cosgrojo

[DwayneEMTP]

Mobey- I take no offense to your reply... but will add that if the term is both a universally accepted medical term, and legally accepted on HIPPA covered documents, then it is certainly "appropriate" to use it in EMS documentation.

I believe that in my original post I expressed my own reticence at the word... but that has more to do with my own value judgments. I often find that the people afflicted with these issues and families that are deeply involved react far less violently to these words than I do when I hear them.

The "R" word has not been thrown out for years. Maybe in the place of the all-encompassing term you refer to it as... but as a specific definition for specific diagnoses, it is still around my friend. There are a hundred different labels that kids these days fall under in special Ed. Kids get labeled different things for issues with speech, behavior (aggressive, passive, delayed etc.), Math ability, language ability, physical development, emotional development, and a whole lot more. MR is still used to identify specific children who do not show any one deficiency, and therefore cannot be sub-categorized. The "R" word may cause consternation in your politically correct mind-set, mobey, but it is used all the time in clinical environments and is an important term for school systems and mental health facilities not only to figure out treatment and development plans for the students, but is important to get the funding they require from the State.

I use the word 'retarded' regularly, just not to identify people. Retarded: To cause to move or proceed slowly; delay or impede. (www.answers.com/topic/retard ). The same as I refuse to stop using the word 'queer' simply because some have chosen a new, inaccurate definition. Some things or processes are retarded, or delayed, and some things are queer, or unusual.

I disagree though when you state that retarded is a term you'll heard used in professional circles to define individuals. For instance, if my doctor said, "Dylan's social skills seem to be retarded." it wouldn't so much as cause me to blink. But if, on the other hand he said, "I can see Dylan is retarded because he has limitted social skills." I would immediately get a different doctor, as the use of retarded to label a person instead of a trait is very much out of favor with those that make their living with such people.

Do all of these professionals choose different language because they are slaves to political correctness? No, simply because it's terribly rare to find an entire person that's 'retarded.' Traits or behaviors? Happens all the time, I have many such (some might say most), traits. But people? I haven't talked to a professional that has been so ignorant as to believe that in at least a generation.

Dwayne

[cosgrojo]

I use the word 'retarded' regularly, just not to identify people. Retarded: To cause to move or proceed slowly; delay or impede. (www.answers.com/topic/retard ). The same as I refuse to stop using the word 'queer' simply because some have chosen a new, inaccurate definition. Some things or processes are retarded, or delayed, and some things are queer, or unusual.

I disagree though when you state that retarded is a term you'll heard used in professional circles to define individuals. For instance, if my doctor said, "Dylan's social skills seem to be retarded." it wouldn't so much as cause me to blink. But if, on the other hand he said, "I can see Dylan is retarded because he has limitted social skills." I would immediately get a different doctor, as the use of retarded to label a person instead of a trait is very much out of favor with those that make their living with such people.

Do all of these professionals choose different language because they are slaves to political correctness? No, simply because it's terribly rare to find an entire person that's 'retarded.' Traits or behaviors? Happens all the time, I have many such (some might say most), traits. But people? I haven't talked to a professional that has been so ignorant as to believe that in at least a generation.

Dwayne

As far as I have been discussing this thread, it has been for documentation purposes only. The original question was for a PCR, and when I asked my wife... it was qualified with the use for documentation. Most professionals do not use the term Mentally Retarded in conversation for the stigma that has been associated with it... and shortening it to "retarded" only worsens that perception. I would hazard a guess that many of these people who would not say the term in polite company, or even when discussing it with family, do not hesitate to use it on the clinical evaluation sheets that they produce. It is used much more than you know or hear.