“Health care is a failure-based system,” is what an MD said to me recently.
I can think of many ways we are working with/in a failure-based system. The language is just one. The judgment, shame, blame, and guilt that run rampant in the language of health care, specifically diabetes, is not just based on failure; it leads to failure.
If we were to adopt a strengths-based system instead, one where we focus on what people are doing right, what they are doing well, or, quite frankly, what they are doing at all, we are more likely to find engaged patients who trust their providers and care about taking an active role in their health.
Everyone wants good health. Everyone wants to feel good. When the system breaks us down visit after visit, insurance phone call after insurance phone call, negative language upon negative language, it’s easy to lose sight of what we truly want. It’s easy to throw in the towel.
Some say “compliance” and “diabetic” are words that have gone away – no one’s using them anymore. Not true. They are alive and well, along with “adherence,” “control,” “test,” and even “fail.” There is, however, a language movement taking place right now, and I know it’s possible to change the language of diabetes. We can change the stigma and biases that are out there about the disease and the people living with it.
Changing our words is relatively easy. Changing the system is much harder. Until we truly change, people with diabetes will still feel shame, blame, judgment, and guilt. The way we talk about diabetes makes a huge difference, not just to the individual, but within the system. If we’re ever going to have a health care system that is focused on success, we have to acknowledge that #languagematters.