Definition
A way of describing people who draw on support from a service.
The bigger picture
This term ‘service user’ defines the person in terms of their relationship with an organisation, and as a ‘consumer’ of services – not as a citizen with agency and equal rights.
Referring to ‘service users’ puts people into a group, suggesting people in the group are the same, and further removing people’s individual identity. It is often used as a blanket term to refer to people seeking or drawing on support, regardless of whether they are actually using a service.
The term frames care and support as being about transactions and getting a service rather than living a good life.
It is often shortened to ‘users’, which is associated with drugs, exploitation and taking advantage of someone or something in an unacceptable or unethical way.
And references to ‘our’ service users reinforces an unequal power dynamic and a paternalistic approach to care and support.
Saying it differently
The person’s name ideally, and where appropriate
Person
Person requiring support
Person accessing support
Person drawing on care and support
What people say
“Service User- I find this term oppressive, devaluing and dehumanising. We need to challenge language where people with experiences of using services are referred to service users” – Chris Erskine
“People have called me service user. I hate that word. Do never call me service user. I’m not your service user. I’m a citizen. I’m a grandad. I’m a poet. I’m an artist. I’m more than a mental illness. I’m more than a diagnosis.” – Glyn Butcher
“We are people. My son is a person in his own right. Call him by his name… He is an individual. He deserves respect.” – Jacqui Darlington
“I’m not a service user. I’m a person who needs care and support.” – Jennifer Pearl
“The word service user makes me feel like I’m a component of the bigger system. It gives no imagination or aspiration to how I am as an individual… I think the way social care works at the moment is that the term service user implies that something is going to be done for me and it doesn’t really capture the partnership way of how me, although having an impairment and where I do rely heavily on people, it really doesn’t show that I can be enabled to live the life I want. And that’s the biggest frustration I get from the word service user. It puts you into a box where you are a user of a particular service, not being seen as someone who is able to live their whole life.” – Rich Amos
“This term for me can make an individual feel like a passive recipient of services rather than an active participant in their own care and support. I just believe it can reduce our identity to a mere interaction with the service. I prefer the alternative of people who draw on care and support, or simply – my name is Clenton.” – Clenton Farquharson
“The word I would prefer to be used is to call me by my name. I’m Rich Amos. I’m a person and an individual. And I understand the scenarios where using individual names isn’t possible, but the way I perceive my life and situation as a disabled person is I draw on support which then enables me to live my life.” – Rich Amos