A safe space to stammer: my poster

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Becca & the finished poster on the wall of her dental practice

Becca Jones tells us about her initiative to help patients who stammer at her dental practice feel more comfortable.

On my journey towards accepting my stammer, whilst celebrating personal milestones and overcoming everyday challenges, I began to think: what could organisations and public spaces do to make people who stammer feel more at ease and truly comfortable?

It dawned on me that, for many of us who stammer, stammering itself isn't what we fear most. The real anxiety lies in the uncertainty — how will others react? Will they laugh? Interrupt us? Ask if we've forgotten our name? Will they dismiss us with awkward jokes? The list, unfortunately, goes on. We often walk into spaces without knowing whether we're entering a safe and understanding environment. Are the staff trained to recognise and support people who stammer, or have they simply never encountered it before? A huge thing for me when getting nervous going to places, is the not knowing how I'm going to be treated. It can be terrifying.

The real anxiety lies in the uncertainty — how will others react? 

That's when I had a realisation: if I knew that someone was going to respond positively to my stammer, I would definitely feel more comfortable and accepted. The answer was clear. I needed to take action to help make our organisation more inclusive for patients who stammer.

Creating a poster

I work as a Dental Nurse at St Raphael's Dental Practice, part of the Bright Orthodontics Group which has six practices in the North West of England. I shared my thoughts and ideas with my employers, and to my delight they were warmly embraced. We decided to create a thoughtfully designed poster, intended to be displayed across all six of our practices to let patients who stammer know that they are in a safe space.

I collaborated with our Marketing Coordinator, Leo, to help bring the concept to life. I told Leo what message I wanted to get across to our patients, which was: we know about stammering and how to recognise it, and that they will be treated fairly; they won't be rushed or have their sentences finished, for example. I thought if patients who stammer know that we're aware of it and know how to deal with it, it would make the experience a lot more comfortable. I even reached out to others I know who stammer and they agreed that it would help them. When Leo sent me the first draft of the poster, there were a couple of small wordings I asked him to alter for me, and then it was finished. He did a great job! You can see the poster below.

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Becca's poster

Perhaps with posters like these we can begin to replace fear with confidence, and silence with voice.

When the poster was finally printed and I saw it on the waiting room wall for the very first time, I was blown away! I felt an overwhelming sense of pride for having taken this step, for initiating meaningful change within our workplace. Since putting it up, my colleagues have told me they've started noticing if patients stammer, and how they are now more mindful and better equipped to support them — whether in person or over the phone. 

Potential for change

If this initiative helps even a handful of our patients feel more comfortable and understood, it will have been more than worth it. The support from my employers has been incredible, and none of this would have been possible without their encouragement and openness to change.

What's even more exciting is that this kind of poster isn't limited to dental practices — it could be used anywhere: GP surgeries, cafés, opticians, hair salons, pharmacies, libraries. It's such a small gesture, but it holds the power to make a profound difference. My goal moving forward is to design a similar poster that can be displayed in any public space, helping to foster greater recognition and acceptance of stammering.

As someone who stammers, I know all too well what it feels like to avoid ordering that coffee or making that phone call. But perhaps with posters like these we can begin to replace fear with confidence, and silence with voice.

Read more Your Voice articles.

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