The recent news reports about patients with 'learning disabilities' being discriminated against by hospital staff who, not understanding their needs, caused (in some cases) them to die, were shocking and tragic.
The thing that struck me as odd was that these poor people had been described as having learning disabilities. The fact of the matter was that they were seriously mentally ill. To my mind having a learning disability is to be afflicted with something like ADD or dyslexia.
Mencap, whose press campaign generated a national and broadcast coverage, says that a learning disability is "not a mental illness. It affects someone's intellectual and social ability their whole life. It used to be called mental handicap but the term is no longer used because many find it offensive."
Now I may be sticking my neck out here but I really dont think that the 43 year old man who starved for 26 days because he couldn't speak and staff couldn't get a feeding tube into him could accurately be described as having a 'learning disability'. The truth is he was plainly mentally impaired.
In PR we are always accused of dressing things up and spinning things. Shoot me down in flames, call me politically incorrect if you will but I think Mencap could be accused of the same. In fact if you think about it Mencap is doing a disservice to people who have actual learning disabilities by classifying them in the same group as people who are seriously mentally ill/handicapped/impaired etc. We live in an age of mad political correctness. What is wrong with describing things as they are - factually?
Comments