Please see below for a glossary of terms that you may see throughout our web site.
AA
Alcoholics
Anonymous
Acute
A
short and severe stage of an illness
or condition.
ADA
Americans
with Disabilities Act
ADHD
Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
ADL
Activities
of Daily Living
Antidepressants
Medicine
given to consumers who have depression.
They are not addictive and usually
need to be taken for 2-4 weeks before
feeling better.
Anxiety
Disorders
Anxiety
and worry are a normal part of everyday
life. Most people get anxious in everyday
situations such as at work, at sporting
events or before an interview. When
a person is worried continuously in
particular situations they may be
suffering from an anxiety disorder.
Often a person with an anxiety disorder
fears that a relative or themselves
will become ill or have an accident
or they worry about money or work.
APH
Adult
Partial Hospital
BHRS
Behavioral Health Rehabilitation Services
BPD
Borderline
Personality Disorder
BSU
Base
Service Unit
CASA
Court
Appointed Special Advocate
Case
Management
This
is a service that links, mobilizes,
coordinates, monitors, and reviews
services and resources for the consumers
of the mental health services.
CASSP
Children
and Adolescent Service Support Program
CHIPPs
Community-Hospital
Integrated Program Plans
CIS
Crisis
Intervention Services
CLA
Community
Living Arrangement
Clubhouse
A
place for consumers to recreate and
socialize.
CM
Case
Manager
CMHC
Community
Mental Health Center
CMI
Chronically
Mentally Ill
Cognitive
Behavioral Therapy
A
form of therapy that is designed to
change the mental images, thoughts
and thinking patterns to help consumers
overcome emotional and behavioural
problems.
Community
Treatment Team (CTT)
The
treatment staff (Psychiatrist, Nurse,
Case Manager, Therapist and/or Crisis
Worker,etc), based on the need of
the consumer, goes to the consumer
to provide treatment.
Consumer
A
person who has received or is receiving
mental heath or addiction services.
CPH
Children's
Partial Hospital
Crisis
A
time when one cannot cope with his
illness.
Crisis Intervention
At times of acute danger or difficulty staff become involved with a person to help change the course of their condition.
Crisis Stabilization
The help one gets when he is in a crisis. This may include medication changes, therapy, case management or hospitalization.
CRP
Crisis Residential Program
CST
Consumer Satisfaction Team
CTT
Community Treatment Team
D&A
Drug and Alcohol
DC
Discharge
DD
Developmental Disabilities
Delusions
A false belief that continues to be believed even when the facts prove differently.
Depression
Depression is a common condition that has many forms. It may be caused by a number of things such as a reaction to a death, loss of a job or a break-up with a partner. Depression may vary from a mild, long-standing sadness to a deep despair making it difficult to function from day-to-day. Depression affects how a person feels, thinks and behaves and it also often affects physical health. Often people feel empty, worthless, apathetic and irritable and they have a loss of pleasure in daily activities. People who are depressed often find basic activities such as sleeping, eating and thinking very difficult.
Detox Services
A medically managed stabilization of a person coming off chemical substances. May be inpatient or outpatient treatment.
DHHS
US Department of Health and Human Services
Diagnosis
Identifying an illness by looking at the pattern of symptoms that a person describes or is experiencing.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
DBT is a comprehensive cognitive-behavioral treatment for complex, difficult-to-treat mental disorders. Developed to treat chronically suicidal individuals as well as treatment for multi-disordered individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD).
DPW
Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare
DSM-IV
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th Edition)
Dually Diagnosed
A consumer who has a mental illness and a substance abuse diagnosis at the same time
First Episode Psychosis
The first time that a consumer experiences a mental state where there is distortion in, or a loss of contact with reality.
Group Homes
Several consumers live together with staff helping them.
Group Therapy
A group of consumers with similar disorders meeting with a therapist to discuss emotions, behaviors and thoughts.
H.O.P.E
Hallucinations
Seeing, hearing, feeling or smelling things that are not there.
HMO
Health Maintenance Organization
Hypomania
A mild form of mania. The consumer will experience increased energy, improved mood or irritability, increased talkativeness, decreased need for sleep, increased social or sexual activity, and increased spending.
ICM
Intensive Case Management
IEP
Individualized Education Plan
Inpatient Services
The services you get when you are in the hospital.
Intensive Outpatient Services (IOP)
Treatment consumers with a Serious Mental Illness (SMI) receive when not in the hospital that lasts for more than an hour and takes place several days per week. Usually involves groups, one-on-one counseling and education.
IOP
Intensive Outpatient Program
IP
Inpatient
ISP
Individual Service Plan
ITP
Individual Treatment Plan
ITT
Interdisciplinary Treatment Team
IVRP
Intensive Vocational Rehabilitation Program
JCAHO
Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
LOS
Length of Stay
LSW
Licensed Social Worker
LTSR - Long Term Structured Residence
Long Term Structured Residence
MA
Medical Assistance (Medicaid)
Major Depression
A period of at least 2 weeks when you experience the loss of interest or pleasure in doing most things and have at least four of the following: change in appetite, weight, sleep, work; decreased energy, feelings of worthlessness or guilt; difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions; or recurrent thoughts of death or of killing yourself.
Mania
A period that lasts at least 2 days where a consumer experiences racing thoughts, euphoria (feeling better than "great"), poor safety, poor judgment and wild spending. Can also include auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, and/or delusions.
MCT
Mobile Crisis Team
MDD
Major Depressive Disorder
Medicaid
A joint Federal and State program that pays for health care for low-income people or for people eligible for other reasons.
Mental Health Assessment
A measurement or evaluation of the consumers' mental health including their social, emotional and behavioural functioning.
Mental Illness
A disease of the brain that causes unusual thoughts and emotions, including depression, feeling like you can do anything and/or not knowing the difference between reality and unreality.
MH
Mental Health
MH/MR
Mental Health/Mental Retardation
MHA
Mental Health Association
MHP
Mental Health Professional
MHRO
Mental Health Review Officer
MI-Mentally Ill
Mentally Ill
MISA
Mentally ill and Substance Abuser; Outpatient services primarily for consumers with drug and alcohol issues
MMPI
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Mood Disorders
Everyone has changes in their mood and there are good reasons for these mood changes. If you have just had dinner with friends you may feel happy and if your pet has just died you may feel sad. Usually our mood is suitable for what is happening in our lives. People who have mood disorders tend to have big changes in their moods for no obvious reason. They may be excited or happy for no reason or upset and sad when good things are happening in their lives. When severe mood swings keep happening without good reason it is likely that the person has a mood disorder.
MSW
Master's Degree in Social Work
NA
Narcotics Anonymous
NAMI
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
Neuroleptic Drugs
Sometimes called anti-psychotic or psychotropic drugs. These medicines help with hallucinations, delusions or paranoia.
NIMH
National Institute of Mental Health
Occupational Therapy (OT)
Occupational therapy is the professional group that uses activities and occupations to enable people to recover from mental illness. Occupational therapists work with people to regain lost abilities, or to develop new skills and interests. Being involved in meaningful occupations helps people on their journey to recovery. They focus on self-care, productivity and leisure time activities.
OCD
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
OMAP
Office of Medical Assistance Programs (State)
OMBH
Office of Managed Behavioral Health Care
OMHSAS
Pennsylvania Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services
OP
Outpatient
OT
Occupational Therapy
Outpatient Services
The services you get when you are not in the hospital. You usually go to a clinic to see your doctor, therapist or case manager.
OVR
Office of Vocational Rehabilitation
PACT
Program of Assertive Community Treatment; see CTT
Panic Disorder
A stronger form of anxiety that may include sweating, heart racing, dizziness or feeling like one is going to die. This disorder may cause lack of sleep and paranoia to the point that the consumer does not want to go certain places or leave his home at all.
Paranoia
When a person feels distrustful of others. He may believe someone is out to get him or hurt him in some way.
Partial Hospitalization
Treatment consumers with a Serious Mental Illness (SMI) receive when not in the hospital that lasts for more than an hour and takes place several days per week. Usually involves groups, one-on-one counseling and education.
PCH
Personal Care Home
PCP
Primary Care Provider
POMS
Performance Outcome Measurement System
PP&A
Pennsylvania Protection and Advocacy, Inc.
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse
A mental health nurse provides treatment, care and support for people with emotional, mental and behavioural problems. Mental health nurses are increasingly working in a community setting, but the majority work in hospital outpatient or outpatient settings. They are skilled in the specialised use of communication, counselling, psychopharmacology, applying speciality knowledge in the provision of clinical assessment, monitoring, therapeutic interventions, treatment, and referral to other health professionals.
Psychiatrist
A medically trained specialist in mental health who, as a doctor, focuses on the definite signs and symptoms of mental illness to formulate a diagnosis and treatment. Psychiatrists are able to prescribe medication.
Psychologist
They assess the current emotional and lifestyle problems of clients, their social and family histories, and examine how feelings, actions, beliefs and culture interact to shape the person's experience and difficulties. Clinical Psychologists give psychometric and neuropsychological tests to identify problems and to measure clients' skills and abilities. They develop and implement individual client plans. They cannot prescribe medication.
Psychosis
A state that causes very serious disorganized thinking and total loss of reality. This state may cause auditory and/or visual hallucinations, delusions, and/or paranoia and may cause a consumer to become violent.
Psychotropic Drugs
Medicines given to control regular symptoms of mental illness, not psychotic symptoms.
PTSD
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
QA
Quality Assurance
RC
Resource Coordinator
Referral
To send or direct a person to another service or specialist for further treatment.
Rehabilitation
Programs which are designed to strengthen individual skills to assist recovery and to develop the environmental supports necessary to sustain the individual as actively and independently as possible in a community setting and prevent hospitalisation. Services, including basic life, prevocational, vocational, recreational, or social, for persons with severe and persistent mental illness.
Residential Services
24 hour living where consumers can receive treatment, education, groups, and skills training.
RTF
Residential Treatment Facility
SAMHSA
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Schizophrenia
A mental disorder that causes a separation between the thought processes and the emotions. Consumers may experience confusion of reality with hallucinations and/or delusions and may become paranoid. A change in personality with bizarre behavior may occur.
Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED)
Any disorder that affects your mood (depression, bi-polar disorder, anxiety, panic).
Serious Mental Illness (SMI)
An adult disorder that cannot be cured and causes difficulty with daily living (taking care of themselves), has problems with relationships, difficulty concentrating, and adapting to change. The illness is expected to last at least 12 months. Examples: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.
Services Provider
Mental Health Centers or hospitals that have been approved by the Division of Mental Health to provide mental health and/or addiction treatment.
SMH
State Mental Hospital
SPCH
Specialized Personal Care Home
SPMI
Serious and Persistent Mental Illness
SSA
Social Security Administration
SSI
Supplemental Security Income
Stigma
A mark or sign of shame, disgrace or disapproval.
Suicidal Thoughts
When a person thinks about killing himself or herself.
Symptoms
A change in a person's physical, behavioral or mental state indicating that a person is not functioning normally or an illness is present.
TD
Tardive Dyskinesia
Treatment
The use of medication, rehabilitation and a team of mental health professionals, as well as yourself to help in the recovery from a mental illness.
Treatment Team
VBH
Value Behavioral Health of Pennsylvania (Western PA)
