Boy, go away for a few days, and look what happens--exciting discussion! So, a couple of things:
Jason says: In terms of other, more general terminology, "Aboriginal Peoples" is a term we're starting to move away from here at CAMH. We're now trying to move toward using FNIM Peoples (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis).
Just to note that the legislation includes all these people in the term "Aboriginal". Don't know if that helps or not. I do get concerned about shifting terms without a sense of historical progress.
Farrell said: So essentially what we're trying to do here is create a label that isn't a label?
and Julia replied:To some extent all words are labels, but for clients I think the more descriptive and less labeling the better.
Just a comment in support of the idea of describing the person, where that's appropriate, rather than the specific aspect (e.g., person with schizophrenia, rather than schizophrenic; person with substance use problems, rather than addict or substance abuser; etc.)