Whether I am teaching workplace mental health or workplace suicide prevention, I encourage all my participants to affectionately call me the “word police”. Why? Because words are free and we can change them today. I hope I can make serious topics more approachable and I hope giving people new language makes them more approachable.
Whether we realize it or not, language is part of creating stigma and reducing stigma.
The official definition of stigma: a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.
My definition of stigma: a collection of negative thoughts, feelings and behaviours toward a group of people different from me.
The whole idea of stigma can feel overwhelming. You might ask yourself, what can I do? My answer is that you can start small by changing a few words here and there.
Some people have no idea that they think and/or feel negatively toward certain groups of people. This is when it is really exciting to teach folks all about the different layers of stigma and invite them to reflect on how they really think and how they really feel.
There are also lots of folks who tell me that they might think or feel negatively toward a certain group of people but they would never do anything negative. They say things like “Come on, I am a nice person!” Which is when I ask them to think about how their thoughts and feelings influence all of their decisions and behaviours.
Why does language matter?
The words we say to ourselves …. can change the way you talk to yourself.
The words we say out loud …. can make other people feel safe talking to you. It role models how to talk about others and teaches others how to reduce stigma.
The words we write down …. Become our laws and policies
Everyone can learn to use “person first language”. You start by thinking of each person as fundamentally whole. Then, each person may or may not, live with a physical illness, a mental illness, thoughts of suicide or anything else.
The very best advice I’ve ever had around changing our language and choosing our words was from a good friend of mine who said “everyone will stumble, just try to stumble forward”. So give yourself permission to try out some new language and be part of reducing stigma.
Contact me to discuss how I can support workplace wellbeing, workplace mental health, workplace suicide prevention and reducing stigma in your workplace.
