Language Matters Appropriate Language Guide for Supporting People in Distress

Language matters.

The words and phrases we use can shape our experience and the experience of others. The use of appropriate language is crucial to facilitating appropriate support to people in distress.

Language Matters: Appropriate Language Guide for Supporting People in Distress is a valuable real-world resource. It discusses language that is useful and language that is problematic. It provides a practical set of terms and definitions for compassionately dealing with the distress related to a broad spectrum of human difficulties experienced by many people and frequently encountered by anyone involved in the suicide prevention/mental health field.

If you are a health/welfare worker or a human resources professional, or anyone with an interest in mental health and suicide prevention, and you would like to use language that helps rather than harms, Language Matters is an important resource for you.

Language Matters is a companion to the book Default Depression: How we now interpret distress as mental illness, published in Adelaide by Wakefield Press in 2023.