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Psychiatric Disability

Core Information

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Attitudes and communication

Practical communication strategies

Some helpful strategies you can use when communicating with a person who is exhibiting symptoms of mental illness (they can also be used to communicate with a distressed person) are:

	HELPFUL		NOT HELPFUL
		use clear and straightforward language	use of jargon
		check that the person understands (you can ask them)	talking louder than the person or over the person
		repeat in different words if necessary take seriously the emotional concerns the person is presenting	generalising or talking down to the person
		recognise the stress level and try to help the person to calm down	getting too personal, asking for irrelevant personal details
		be clear about the function or role of your service	agreeing with the person's delusions
		eliminate physical or sensory barriers which may be causing a problem	trying to talk the person out of their delusion
		if possible, try to relocate the person to an area where there are fewer onlookers	intellectualising on delusions
		if the request is beyond our control, ask the person how you can best help	getting too many people involved
			"fobbing-off" the person
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