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Working for Social and Ethical Change
496
letters Working for Social and Ethical Change MADAM - Many thanks to Mick Skelly for so eloquently putting into words so much that I have been conscious of and talked about, particularly over the last fifteen years (‘Research Into reality’, June 1996). Working in mental health it is very upsetting to help clients to improve, to the point when they are ready for discharge, only to find either they are going back to the deprived, threatening, end-of-the-line circumstances which brought them into hospital in the first place, or they have nowhere to go at all.
In the community you can visit standing up for yourself in those people who are anxious and very situations can be dangerous. depressed only to find their living Treating an asthmatic child being conditions are so poor and general raised in a one-room home with stresses are so great that you feel despairing parents who smoke as totally inadequate trying to calm an addiction against hopelessness their anxiety Or encourage stress has its limitations. management. So if anyone is thinking of starting a You quite frequently meet suicidal group called Chartered Physiotheraclients who say ’My life is not worth pists in Working for Social living’ and YOU can quite see they and Ethical Change - put me down are telling the truth. as a founder member. Assertiveness training hardly seems to be worth while when a client Anna 6 COrSer MCSP is beaten by an alcoholic husband - Stratford on Avon
Knickers (Getting in a Twist) MADAM - With the profession’s attempts to improve its research knowledge base, and the CSP’s encouragement for its members to partake in rigorous research, I am appalled at the frivolity of your leading article ‘Are you wearing knickers?’ (Physiotherapy,July 1996). What an inappropriate article for our professional journal! I note that in the same journal are the guidelines for authors writing for Physiotherapy. Would this not be a much more appropriate place for the editor to make known what is and is not acceptable language to be used in articles submitted to the Journal? What is stopping us having guidelines like the British Sociological Association (1993) on anti-sexist language, anti-disabling language, and anti-racist language, etc? Perhaps then we will all be aware of what is and is not appropriate language. Perhaps physiotherapists might take the issue more seriously, and our research might be more readily accepted by other professional groups. Sue Danks MCSP Surbiton
Reference British Psychological Association (1993). Statement of Ethical Practice, BPA, London.
Physiotherapy,August 1996, vol 82, no 8
MADAM - Thank you so much for your witty and apposite remarks on the way we spoil our English language by wrong usage (‘Are you wearing knickers?’ Physiotherapy, July 1996). In our attempts to put our patients at ease we use their first names, and only succeed in making them feel uncomfortable and patronised. This is especially the case when we are speaking to older patients. Perhaps we will soon see less of the confusion, in research reports, in the use of terms like ‘ladies’ and ‘gentlemen’ and in the differences between sex and gender. Our newly qualified physiotherapists will have undertaken research projects at their universities and should be better equipped to write scientific papers. Your editorial was succinct and thought-provoking, as well as being a pleasure to read.
Margaret Page MCSP Bournemouth
MADAM - I am a little surprised to learn from your leader that the use of the English language is so influenced by Messrs Marks and Spencer. Here in the north of England we all wear knickers, and wear them with pride! We refer to these undergarments as ‘knickers’ not because we suffer from corporate incontinence, nor because we are uncouth, but simply because that is their
accepted name. Do patients in the south really refer to them as ‘briefs’? How quaint! I would suggest that those of you in the south might take pause to consider the fact that there is a world outside of London; regional differences do exist, and as such contribute to the richness of the English-language. In future, please take heed of your own recommendations! Carole A Eales MCSP Sheffield
MADAM - With reference to your article ‘Are you wearing knickers?’ you appear to have overlooked one major factor in an attempt to be overly politically correct. The fact is that in the north of England, as across the Atlantic, ‘pants’ are actually trousers and not knickers or briefs! Your article was entirely pointless and I think you’ll find that any ‘elderly gentleman’ in the street would much rather be referred to as such, rather than as an ‘old man’. Get in touch with reality! G Wilde MCSP The leader writer replies: Well - you did read it! I was born and bred in Yorkshire but I never wear knickers. All these writers make valid points which I appreciate, but for the sake of our more sensitive readers, this correspondence is now closed. JW
letters Working for Social and Ethical Change MADAM - Many thanks to Mick Skelly for so eloquently putting into words so much that I have been conscious of and talked about, particularly over the last fifteen years (‘Research Into reality’, June 1996). Working in mental health it is very upsetting to help clients to improve, to the point when they are ready for discharge, only to find either they are going back to the deprived, threatening, end-of-the-line circumstances which brought them into hospital in the first place, or they have nowhere to go at all.
In the community you can visit standing up for yourself in those people who are anxious and very situations can be dangerous. depressed only to find their living Treating an asthmatic child being conditions are so poor and general raised in a one-room home with stresses are so great that you feel despairing parents who smoke as totally inadequate trying to calm an addiction against hopelessness their anxiety Or encourage stress has its limitations. management. So if anyone is thinking of starting a You quite frequently meet suicidal group called Chartered Physiotheraclients who say ’My life is not worth pists in Working for Social living’ and YOU can quite see they and Ethical Change - put me down are telling the truth. as a founder member. Assertiveness training hardly seems to be worth while when a client Anna 6 COrSer MCSP is beaten by an alcoholic husband - Stratford on Avon
Knickers (Getting in a Twist) MADAM - With the profession’s attempts to improve its research knowledge base, and the CSP’s encouragement for its members to partake in rigorous research, I am appalled at the frivolity of your leading article ‘Are you wearing knickers?’ (Physiotherapy,July 1996). What an inappropriate article for our professional journal! I note that in the same journal are the guidelines for authors writing for Physiotherapy. Would this not be a much more appropriate place for the editor to make known what is and is not acceptable language to be used in articles submitted to the Journal? What is stopping us having guidelines like the British Sociological Association (1993) on anti-sexist language, anti-disabling language, and anti-racist language, etc? Perhaps then we will all be aware of what is and is not appropriate language. Perhaps physiotherapists might take the issue more seriously, and our research might be more readily accepted by other professional groups. Sue Danks MCSP Surbiton
Reference British Psychological Association (1993). Statement of Ethical Practice, BPA, London.
Physiotherapy,August 1996, vol 82, no 8
MADAM - Thank you so much for your witty and apposite remarks on the way we spoil our English language by wrong usage (‘Are you wearing knickers?’ Physiotherapy, July 1996). In our attempts to put our patients at ease we use their first names, and only succeed in making them feel uncomfortable and patronised. This is especially the case when we are speaking to older patients. Perhaps we will soon see less of the confusion, in research reports, in the use of terms like ‘ladies’ and ‘gentlemen’ and in the differences between sex and gender. Our newly qualified physiotherapists will have undertaken research projects at their universities and should be better equipped to write scientific papers. Your editorial was succinct and thought-provoking, as well as being a pleasure to read.
Margaret Page MCSP Bournemouth
MADAM - I am a little surprised to learn from your leader that the use of the English language is so influenced by Messrs Marks and Spencer. Here in the north of England we all wear knickers, and wear them with pride! We refer to these undergarments as ‘knickers’ not because we suffer from corporate incontinence, nor because we are uncouth, but simply because that is their
accepted name. Do patients in the south really refer to them as ‘briefs’? How quaint! I would suggest that those of you in the south might take pause to consider the fact that there is a world outside of London; regional differences do exist, and as such contribute to the richness of the English-language. In future, please take heed of your own recommendations! Carole A Eales MCSP Sheffield
MADAM - With reference to your article ‘Are you wearing knickers?’ you appear to have overlooked one major factor in an attempt to be overly politically correct. The fact is that in the north of England, as across the Atlantic, ‘pants’ are actually trousers and not knickers or briefs! Your article was entirely pointless and I think you’ll find that any ‘elderly gentleman’ in the street would much rather be referred to as such, rather than as an ‘old man’. Get in touch with reality! G Wilde MCSP The leader writer replies: Well - you did read it! I was born and bred in Yorkshire but I never wear knickers. All these writers make valid points which I appreciate, but for the sake of our more sensitive readers, this correspondence is now closed. JW