Comments on: The patients have run out http://publicstrategist.com/2010/02/the-patients-have-run-out/ Working to make government work better Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:01:00 +0000 hourly 1 By: Martin Stewart-Weeks http://publicstrategist.com/2010/02/the-patients-have-run-out/comment-page-1/#comment-1892 Martin Stewart-Weeks Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:37:47 +0000 http://publicstrategist.com/?p=1186#comment-1892 "People" won't work and isn't the answer. Of course it's right at one level and whatever labels we use for whatever reasons shouldn't obscure the fact that they/we are people. But it's not helpful, although alluring. Fact is, as PS says in his post, we're not just 'people' in our various interactions and relationships with government. We are lots of different things and sometimes it's actually perfectly appropriate to be defined in a specific role - customer, user, patient, citizen. They all mean something - or should - and they should signal what we might expect in terms of the way people wearing those labels should expect to be treated. The argument about dropping labels is false I think. Labels are both good and necessary. But if labels are used to distract and to be used devoid of any meaning (with resulting expectations from those at the other end), then we have a problem, for sure. But it's not a problem likely to be solved by trying to find the once and future label we can use always and everywhere. “People” won’t work and isn’t the answer. Of course it’s right at one level and whatever labels we use for whatever reasons shouldn’t obscure the fact that they/we are people. But it’s not helpful, although alluring. Fact is, as PS says in his post, we’re not just ‘people’ in our various interactions and relationships with government. We are lots of different things and sometimes it’s actually perfectly appropriate to be defined in a specific role – customer, user, patient, citizen. They all mean something – or should – and they should signal what we might expect in terms of the way people wearing those labels should expect to be treated.

The argument about dropping labels is false I think. Labels are both good and necessary. But if labels are used to distract and to be used devoid of any meaning (with resulting expectations from those at the other end), then we have a problem, for sure. But it’s not a problem likely to be solved by trying to find the once and future label we can use always and everywhere.

]]>