RICHMOND
Jill Egle hates the R-word. She wants to banish the term "mental retardation" from official state language and replace it with "intellectually disabled."
Her efforts got a boost Tuesday when a bill to do that
sailed through the House Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee without opposition.
"The use of retarded has been demeaning," said Del. Charles Caputo, D-Fairfax, sponsor of HB760. "Many people have suffered for years under this stigma."
The bill would change the name of the state Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services to the Department of Mental Health, Intellectual Disability and Substance Abuse Services.
All references to "mental retardation" in state language would be changed to "intellectually disabled."
The cost of the changes, which would include signs, letterheads, and business cards, is estimated at $75,000, according to a fiscal impact statement attached to the bill.
Egle, 31, said she has been officially diagnosed as mentally retarded but refuses to accept the phrase.
"That diagnosis is never going to come out of me," said Egle, co-executive director of The Arc of Northern Virginia, an advocacy group. "I have an intellectual development disability."
Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com
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Let's call this ..
Why is it that these people have nothing better to do then remake words to be politically correct? Enough already! This is the reason this country is in this shape. If one is dumb, changing the word dumb does not make him smarter now does it, and the worst of it is he doesn't even know he is dumb so just who are we catering too here? Geezes..a rapist is a rapist unless we need to go to the lengths of not offending this person and call him a person with a fetish of violent clothing removal behaviour . Just how stupid are we going to get to be politally correct? Leave my tax dollars alone and use them for something that TRULY matters..and if you're bored, get another job more meaningful..and leave the lawmaking to others that really see a need in the world for change such as illegal immigrants....drunken.. driving... rapists.. thievery... child molesters...lets start focusing on real tragedies that need addressing!Geezes....
I guess
All the important stuff has already been taken care of since they have time and money to devote to this.
I have much sympathy for people who suffer from disabilities of all types, but this is nothing more than an effort to assuage the pain of a disability by denying its existence...maybe if we CALL it something else, it won't SEEM so bad.
It's not the term that causes the stigma...it is the disability. Sorry if that hurts anyone's feelings but sometimes the truth hurts. I hate it when I have to look in the mirror every morning and admit that I'm aesthetically disabled, but that's just life.
I wonder
I wonder if a person with this condition can even say "Intellectual Disability" I hate the title she came up with. If you think about it,it sounds as if she's calling those people with it, a dummy.
Then again most elected officials have some form of Intellectual disability
Costly name change
Why don't they just leave off everything on the name except "Mental Health"? Why are they spending $75,000 of tax money on something like this? A lot of that is my money, and they didn't ask me if they could spend it that way.