Sources include: SAMHSA terminology definitions and www.findcounseling.com/glossary
Antisocial Personality Disorder: A condition characterized by antisocial behavior (such as lying, stealing, and sometimes violence), lack of social emotions (guilt and shame), and impulsivity.
Antisocial Personality: A personality style beginning in childhood that involves a behavior pattern that seriously violates the rights of others. Individuals with this disorder are irresponsible in their work, school, finances, and personal relationships.
Anxiety disorders: Anxiety disorders have multiple physical and psychological symptoms, but all have in common feelings of apprehension, tension, or uneasiness. Among the anxiety disorders are panic disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. [more...]
Behavior Disorders: Many terms are used interchangeably to classify children who exhibit extreme or unacceptable chronic behavior problems. These children lag behind their age mates in social development and are often isolated from others either because they withdraw from social contact or because they behave in an aggressive, hostile manner. Behavior disorders result from persistent negative social interactions between the child and the environment. Behavior disorders generally consist of four clusters of traits, including conduct disorders, anxiety-withdrawal, immaturity, and socialized aggression. [more...]
Bipolar Disorder: Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depression is a type of mental illness that involves a disorder of affect or mood. The person’s mood usually swings between overly “high” or irritable to sad and hopeless, and then back again, with periods of normal mood in between. [more...]
Case management: Practice in which the service recipient is a partner in his or her recovery and self-management of mental illness and life. Clinical: In the mental health field, clinical refers to professionals who interact with patients in order to arrive at a diagnosis and treatment. Several states offer variations on licensing to differentiate between those who are educated in a field, and those who are trained to interact and counsel with clients. The addition of the term, “clinical,” to a professional title sometimes indicates extensive professional experience as well. The presence or absence of term "clinical" in a mental health professional's title is not a reliable indicator, however. A Licensed Professional Counselor in one state may have the same meaning as Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in another state.
Conduct Disorder: A persistent pattern of behavior that involves violation of the rights of others (disobedience, destructiveness, jealousy, boisterousness, and inadequate feelings of guilt). The pattern is seen at home, school, and in the community. Verbal and physical aggression are key features of conduct disorder. See also behavior disorders/emotional disturbance and oppositional-defiant disorder. Co-occurring/comorbidity: In general, the existence of two or more illnesses-whether physical or mental-at the same time in a single individual. In this chapter, comorbidity specifically means the existence of a mental illness and a substance abuse disorder or a mental and a physical illness in the same person at the same time.
Consumer: Any person using mental health services.
Cultural competence: In this chapter, a group of skills, attitudes, and knowledge that allows persons, organizations, and systems to work effectively with diverse racial, ethnic, and social groups.
Decompensation: A process that was formally stable has become unstable, leading to failure. [more...]
Depression: A state of low mood that is described differently by people who experience it. Commonly described are feelings of sadness, despair, emptiness, or loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all things. Depression also can be experienced in other disorders such as bipolar disorder (manic-depressive disorder).
Diagnosable mental illness: Includes all people with a mental illness in a specified population group, whether or not they have received a formal diagnosis from a medical or mental health professional.
Forensic Psychiatry: Forensic psychiatry is the area of psychiatry related to the law and the legal system. Forensic psychiatrists are trained on both civil and criminal court cases and perform services such as giving expert testimony about issues related to mental health and psychopharmacology, evaluating competency, determining whether a defendant is able to plea not guilty by reason of insanity and suggesting appropriate psychiatric treatment in place of or in addition to a prison sentence. They also provide psychiatric services to patients in legal custody.
Homeless person: A person who lacks housing. The definition also includes a person living in transitional housing or a person who spends most nights in a supervised public or private facility providing temporary living quarters.
Juvenile justice facility: Includes detention centers, shelters, reception or diagnostic centers, training schools, ranches, forestry camps or farms, halfway houses and group homes, and residential treatment centers for young offenders.
Mental health services: Diagnostic, treatment, and preventive care that helps improve how persons with mental illness feel both physically and emotionally as well as how they interact with other persons. These services also help persons who have a strong risk of developing a mental illness.
Mental illness: The term that refers collectively to all diagnosable mental disorders. Mental disorders are health conditions characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior (or some combination thereof) that are all mediated by the brain and associated with distress or impaired functioning or both. Mental disorders spawn a host of human problems that may include personal distress, impaired functioning and disability, pain, or death. These disorders can occur in men and women of any age and in all racial and ethnic groups. They can be the result of family history, genetics, or other biological, environmental, social, or behavioral factors that occur alone or in combination.
Oppositional-Defiant Disorder: A disorder of early to middle childhood that may evolve into a conduct disorder, usually diagnosed before the age of twelve; children with oppositional defiant disorder defy adult rules, are angry, and often lose their tempers.
Parity, mental health parity: Equivalent benefits and restrictions in insurance coverage for mental health services and for other health services.
Psychiatric Social Worker: Core mental health professionals that have earned the MSW and are trained to appreciate and emphasize the impact of environmental factors on mental disorders. LCSW designates Licensed Clinical Social Worker.
Psychiatrists: These core mental health professionals have had extensive residency experience and have earned the MD degree. Training focuses on psychopharmacology (or medication management of mental health issues) and the other medical therapies, diagnosis, and psychotherapy or psychoanalysis. Specialties include Forensic Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Geriatric Psychiatry.
Psychopharmacology: The management of psychiatric illness using medication such as antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti-anxiety medications and more.
Psychotherapy: The treatment of mental disorders, emotional problems, and personality difficulties through talking with a therapist. There are dozens of different styles of psychotherapy, including psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalysis: An approach to psychology that emphasizes unconscious motives and conflicts. It encompasses both a theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy.
Psychoanalytic Method: In psychoanalytic therapy, the effort to bring unconscious material into consciousness, often through dream recall and free association.
Resilience: Manifested competence in the context of significant challenges to adaptation or development
Schizophrenia: A mental disorder lasting for at least six months, including at least one month with two or more active-phase symptoms. Active-phase symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior. Schizophrenia is accompanied by marked impairment in social or occupational functioning. [more...]
Screening for mental health problems: A brief formal or informal assessment to identify persons who have mental health problems or are likely to develop such problems. The screening process helps determine whether a person has a problem and, if so, the most appropriate mental health services for that person.
Serious emotional disturbance (SED): A diagnosable mental disorder found in persons from birth to age 18 years that is so severe and long lasting that it seriously interferes with functioning in family, school, community, or other major life activities.
Serious mental illness (SMI): A diagnosable mental disorder found in persons aged 18 years and older that is so long lasting and severe that it seriously interferes with a person's ability to take part in major life activities.
Substance Abuse and Addiction: Addiction is a serious illness. Health, finances, relationships, careers—all can be ruined. The abuse of drugs and alcohol is by far the leading cause of preventable illnesses and premature death in our society. The importance of substance abuse treatment cannot be overstated, and fortunately many effective treatments are available. The road to recovery, however, begins with recognition. [more...]
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