Definition
When a person or organisation does what is required of them. This may be an organisation such as a care provider sticking to the law about what they should do and how they should do it. It may also be a person doing something like taking their medicine regularly.
The bigger picture
People are sometimes referred to as being ‘compliant’ or ‘non-compliant’. This implies they are either doing what they are told, or not doing what they are told. It’s important to be aware of the power dynamics here. Who is determining what is expected? Is this reasonable (for example, it is the law) or is it based on someone else’s judgement about how a person ‘should’ behave.
Saying it differently
Use with caution. It might be more appropriate to refer to people ‘deciding’, ‘choosing’ or ‘preferring’ either to do or not do something, which acknowledges their autonomy. This helps us understand whether or not people have a choice, and what the alternatives might be.
What people say
“In a mental health context, often the way that the interaction might go is, ‘have you been compliant with your medication?… I’m not saying don’t ask those kinds of questions, but it’s how you ask them. So you could rephrase it, like how have you been managing your medication?… It’s like a script that plays out within mental health settings which I think is really unhelpful. And often people don’t respond in a way that could get them some support. They respond in a way that is based on fear, so people will go no no no. And actually what we want is for people to say, do you know what, I might have missed a few pills here and there, is there some coping strategies to maybe not do that in the future… I think because of the language, people just aren’t honest.” – Isaac Samuels