patient

use "patient" only if the person is under a doctor's care or has a disease that requires such care. "For the 43 million people now designated as having a physical, mental, or biological disability, only a tiny proportion are continually resident in and under medical supervision and are thus truly patients" (Irving Kenneth Zola, in Perspectives on Disability). The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 4th ed., says to reconsider such terms as patient management and patient placement; "In most cases, it is treatment, not patients, that is managed; some alternatives are 'coordination of care,' 'supportive services,' 'assistance.'" See also case, disabilities.