Our mental health trust tends to refer to people as "service users", which I really hate. I think it's because it implies that it's an option people chose, which isn't really the case as no one would choose it unless they were unwell!
Client I don't like either though I guess with therapy it's slightly different. Perhaps if I was paying privately for therapy I'd be happy being a client, after all it would be a choice to pay for the therapist and any transactions are between me and her. Whereas with an NHS therapist, I'm not a client and I think referring to me as such sort of implies that I just feel like using NHS resources in such a way. I also feel that the NHS are the client as they are the ones financing it.
I prefer patient. After all I have an illness and am recieving treatment to alleviate those symptoms. With regards to seeing a patient as a passive role, when people are referred to a physiotherapist are they taking a passive role? Lots of forms of treatment require input from the patients, yet no one suggests that those patients should be referred to as anything else.
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