NHS Sussex and SPFT have worked together with a host of local organisations to create this helpful and insightful resource and reference guide for the changing language within Mental Health.

• BHT Sussex

• Capital

• Changing Futures Sussex

• NHS Sussex

• People Participation Team

• Possability People

• Southdown

• Sussex Coproduction and Lived Experience (SCALE) Network

• Sussex Health and Care

• Sussex Interpreting Services

• Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

• West Sussex County Council

• West Sussex Mind

We recommend everyone reading this guide and opening the conversations up to how we encourage supportive and productive conversations about language within Mental Health services. CAPITAL were delighted to be apart of this work.

Language has power. It can help a person to feel understood, and validate their experiences, or could make them feel alienated and potentially cause harm.

This guide has been developed as a resource to prompt discussion about the language we use in healthcare, to help us to all think about the impact that our words can have and support positive change.

Whether it be used in conversations, meetings, training, or during our own times of reflection, the guide is about encouraging supportive conversations, recognising and valuing people’s differences and preferences, and creating a culture that benefits everyone.

This guide does not replace other useful language guides that already exist. It brings together local learning from the Changing the Language project in Sussex, and the feedback that we have heard over the last two years.

The Changing the Language Guide has been coproduced by people with an interest in supporting a positive change of the language we use.

The group includes people with lived and living experience of mental health difficulties and using services, experts by experience, families and carers, and people working in health and care services across Sussex.

The guide will be regularly reviewed and updated. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please contact spft.communications@nhs.net.

"Whilst co-producing the guide I was able to freely share my own experiences and learnt so much from others in the group. Having such a diverse range of experiences and discussions was what made it so rich.

Language is so important, and we often don’t realise the impact it can have on others. I hope that raising awareness through this guide will bring about a better understanding and positive change for the future, so we continue to learn, listen and understand from others whilst recognising that we are individuals."

-An Expert by Experience representative of the Mental Health Language Reference Group

Full Guide below