Mental Health Terminology Explained
Acute: A term describing a person experiencing severe distress associated with the onset or increased signs/symptoms of psychiatric problems.
Addiction: Defined as the inability to control a psychological or physiological dependence on a substance or activity, leading to self-harm.
Advocate: A person who provides information and support to individuals, advocating for their rights and responsibilities.
Assessment: Evaluation of a person’s mental, emotional, and social capabilities. Goals include identifying vulnerability factors, diagnosing, selecting the best treatment, and evaluating treatment effectiveness.
Care Plan: A detailed action plan identifying the needs and strengths of a consumer. It involves collaborative development of interventions and goals, as well as referrals to relevant health professionals.
Chronic: Describes the gradual worsening of a condition over time.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): A short-term, goal-oriented psychological treatment emphasizing the role of thoughts in controlling behavior and mood.
Community Mental Health Team: A multidisciplinary team typically including a psychiatrist, psychologist, mental health nurse, social worker, and occupational therapist.
Comorbidity: The co-occurrence of two or more disorders, such as Anxiety Disorder and Depression.
Consumer: An individual utilizing, or who has utilized, a mental health service.
Counsellor: A health professional providing supportive listening and emotional support to individuals facing various difficulties, as well as support to their families.
Delusion: A belief, contrary to culturally accepted reality, firmly held despite external evidence to the contrary, commonly found in paranoid disorders.
Diagnosis: Determining that a person’s symptoms or problems indicate a particular disorder as described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV).
Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV): The 4th edition of a manual by the American Psychiatric Association defining and classifying mental and personality disorders.
ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy): Often recommended for severe depression or acute psychosis when other treatments are deemed too risky or ineffective.
Efficacy: The ability to produce a desired therapeutic effect that does more good than harm, as demonstrated in clinical trials.
Hallucination: A perceptive experience involving sensing things while awake that appear real but are created by the mind.
Hallucinogen: A drug or chemical causing hallucinations, such as LSD.
Impairment: Any loss of function directly resulting from psychiatric problems.
Intake: Managing clinical and administrative tasks such as triage and assessment.
Intervention: Taking initiative to modify and improve a health-related matter.
Mania: An emotional state of intense elation characterized by talkativeness, flight of ideas, distractibility, grandiose plans, and purposeless activity, often part of ‘bipolar disorder’ in DSM IV.
Mental Disorder: Clinically, a recognized and diagnosable mental illness with specific symptoms meeting DSM IV criteria. Legally, a mental disorder in the Mental Health Act refers to a short, acute disruption in functioning due to a life crisis.
Mental Health: A state of well-being in which an individual realizes their abilities, can cope with normal stresses, work productively, and contribute to their community (WHO, 2001).
Mental Health Literacy: The ability to recognize specific disorders, seek mental health information, know risk factors and treatments, and maintain attitudes that promote appropriate help-seeking.
Mental Health Nurse: A specialized nurse caring for people with mental illness, also known as a psychiatric nurse.
Mental Health Promotion: Actions to maximize mental health and well-being among populations and individuals.
Mental Health Treatment Plan: An outcome-oriented plan detailing proposed treatment, counseling, management, rehabilitation, or other services to promote recovery.
Occupational Therapist: Helps people participate fully in daily activities to promote health and well-being.
Outreach Services: Efforts to provide mental health and well-being services to individuals who are geographically disadvantaged.
Paranoia: General terms for delusions of persecution, grandiosity, or both, found in various pathological conditions.
Perinatal: Refers to the period during pregnancy and up to a year after birth.
Prevention: Interventions occurring before the initial onset of a disorder.
Prognosis: Prediction of the likely course or outcome of a particular illness.
Protective Factors: Factors that produce resilience to the development of psychological difficulties in the face of adverse risk factors.
Psychiatrist: A medical practitioner with specialist training in psychiatry, able to prescribe medication for mental conditions.
Psychologist: A health professional prescribing therapy or counseling as treatment for mental health problems.
Psychosis: A severe mental disorder where thinking and emotion are so impaired that the individual loses contact with reality.
Psychotherapy: A primarily verbal method helping individuals change their thoughts, feelings, and behavior to reduce distress and achieve greater life satisfaction.
Recovery: Oriented towards reconstructing meaning and purpose in life, experiencing wellness and satisfaction.
Rehabilitation: Resuming optimal personal and social functioning in a supportive environment.
Resilience: Capacities within a person promoting positive outcomes, such as mental health and well-being, providing protection from adverse health outcomes.
Risk Factors: Characteristics making it more likely for an individual to develop a disorder.
Self-Esteem: The perception an individual has of themselves, affecting their social and emotional well-being.
Self-Harm: Deliberate injury to one’s own body.
Self-Help Groups: Groups where members improve their well-being through activities and new skills, sometimes offering a bridge to professional assistance.
Social Worker: A health professional providing support to people and their families during a crisis, offering practical support, counseling, and emotional support.
Suicide: The act of taking one’s own life.
Support Groups: Groups where people meet to provide emotional support and exchange information and experiences.
Supported Accommodation: Subsidized rental accommodation allowing access to health and/or disability support workers when needed.
Triage: Prioritizing service type, need, and urgency based on assessment of risk, need, and dysfunction, creating a service request and possibly referring to appropriate services.
Wellbeing: Maintaining a balance of physical, mental, and emotional health.
Worrying: Feeling uneasy or concerned about a person, circumstance, or event.