Use Person First Language in Mental Health Settings**

For Example Say:

He/She has bipolar illness (or a diagnosis of...)

He/She has schizophrenia (or a diagnosis of...)

He/She has a mental health condition

He/She has a mental illness

Person (singular) with a mental illness (singular)

Persons/people/individuals (plural) with mental illnesses (plural)

Instead of:

He/She is bipolar

He/She is schizophrenic

He/She is emotionally disturbed/mentally ill

He/She is mentally ill

The mentally ill... OR People with mental illness (singular)

General Rules to Speak, Write, Respect and Empower By Having vs. Being

To HAVE an illness, or to have the diagnosis of an illness, is notably different than to BE the illness. When I “have bipolar illness,” I recognize that aspect of myself, much as I recognize that I “have brown eyes.” When I “am bipolar,” I take on the identity of BEING bipolar. It becomes me, and I become it. When we talk about an individual as separate from their mental health condition, we recognize the person first, and we acknowledge the person’s power to overcome that condition and live a full life separate from it. I often tell people, “I may have it, but it doesn’t have me!”

Singular vs. Plural

Mental illnesses are diverse; there are many of them, and many types of them. To say that “people” (plural) have “mental illness” (singular) misses the breadth and diversity of the nature of mental illnesses. Therefore, one person has one illness (“person with a mental illness”). More than one person has more than one illness (“persons with mental illnesses”). To use the singular (illness) when speaking in the plural (people/individuals/persons) reinforces stigma and discrimination. It implies that the there is only one mental illness, that it is “one size fits all,” and to have a mental illness means that you must have the same symptoms as the person who made the front page of the news.

**Taken from Illinois DHS/ Division of Mental Health Document