A

Art Therapy
is a form of psychotherapy that uses art media as its primary mode of communication. Clients who are referred to an art therapist need not have previous experience or skill in art, the overall aim of its practitioners is to enable a client to effect change and growth on a personal level through the use of art materials in a safe and facilitating environment.

Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)
A range of developmental disorders that begin in childhood and persist throughout adulthood. They can lead to difficulties with social and emotional interaction, language, communication and flexibility of thought, often referred to as the triad of impairments.

Autonomy
The obligation to respect the individual’s ability and freedom to be able to make decisions about their own life.  It refers to the right to self-rule, free from controlling interference by others.  It also refers to the requirement to ensure people are adequately informed so that they can make meaningful choices.

Advocacy
Speaking up for, or acting on behalf of yourself or another person.
(see also Independent Advocacy)

B

Behaviour
The way a person behaves toward other people, manner of acting or controlling oneself.

C

Care Quality Commission (CQC)
The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulatory body that govern, inspects and reviews hospitals, care homes and care services in England. They ensure that providers of health and social care services adhere to the standards set out by the government in terms of quality, care and safety. It is funded by the government.

Care Pathways
Care pathways are patient focused care programmes, representing a sequence of care events, and how they should link to one another.

Care Programme Approach
This is a particular way of assessing, planning and reviewing someone's mental health care and support needs.

Challenging Behaviour
Challenging behaviour is used to remind us that severely problematic or socially unacceptable behaviour should be seen as a challenge to service, rather than the fault of the individual. In order to respond to this challenge, services need to prioritise de-escalation and promote positive behaviour support in order to reduce the occurrence of the behaviour and ensure that the individual’s quality of life is improved.

Clinical assessment
Draws on the practitioner’s knowledge of the individual’s past and present behaviour and their current state of mental and physical health. The practitioner will review this information, using their experience and training to make a judgement of the individual’s current state or likely actions.

Clinical psychologist
A psychologist who has undertaken additional training and usually works within mental health or learning disability services, offering diagnosis and psychological treatment and support for a range of conditions.

Commissioning/Commissioners
Commissioning is the process of drawing on information about the needs of local communities, assessing what services are already available, and establishing whether there are any gaps. Commissioners then purchase or ‘commission’ services from a range of statutory and independent providers.  They will often look at the specific needs of categories of people, for example people with learning disabilities, people with physical or sensory impairments, older people, and people with mental health issues.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT can help you to change how you think ('Cognitive') and what you do ('Behaviour'). These changes can help you to feel better. Unlike some of the other talking treatments, it focuses on the 'here and now' problems and difficulties. Instead of focusing on the causes of your distress or symptoms in the past, it looks for ways to improve your state of mind now.

Confidentiality
Confidentiality is based on the human right for privacy.  It is a legal obligation that respects the expectation that any information given to a practitioner will only be used for the purpose for which it was given (i.e. in the provision of care by a particular service). Respecting confidentiality means that information provided by people using services will not be disclosed without their permission. Acceptable breaches of confidentiality take place when it is thought that withholding information may cause harm.

Cultural practices
In its broadest sense, this refers to the traditional or cultural practices of a particular cultural or ethnic group – the things people say and do in everyday life – and can include newly evolved cultural expressions.

Culture
In its broadest sense, culture refers to a way of life that differentiates groups according to their attitudes, beliefs, language, dress, manners and tastes in food.

D

Diabetes
A medical condition in which a person has a high blood sugar (glucose) level. It is caused by either the body not producing enough insulin (Type 1 diabetes) or body cells not properly responding to the insulin that is produced (Type 2 diabetes). Insulin is produced in the pancreas and enables body cells to absorb glucose which is then turned into energy. Without treatment, diabetes can lead to a number of complications, including problems with vision.

Disability Discrimination Act 2005
A piece of legislation that promotes civil rights for disabled people and protects disabled people from discrimination.

Down’s syndrome:
A learning disability caused by the presence of an extra chromosome. It occurs by chance at conception and is irreversible.
 
Duty of care:
The legal obligation requiring individuals to adhere to a standard of reasonable care and to avoid the risk of causing any foreseeable harm.
 
E

Epilepsy
Currently defined as the tendency to have recurrent seizures or fits.

Equality
Equality means equal rights for people regardless of what factors they might have that are different. Equality states that because they are human they must be equal.

Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 is the law which bans unfair treatment and helps achieve equal opportunities in the workplace and in wider society.
 
G

H

Holistic assessment
Uses information from a range of sources. It may use actuarial methods by looking at the statistics describing how groups of similar people have acted. It may also draw on the practitioner’s knowledge of the individual’s past and present behaviour and their current state of mental and physical health.

I

Independent Advocacy
Offers support for people who are seeking resolutions to any issues that are of concern to them, by ensuring that their voice is heard and that they understand their civil and human rights. Advocacy is closely linked to the principles of Human Rights, disability discrimination, equality of opportunities and the social model of disability.

Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA)
Independent Mental Health Advocate, an independent mental health advocacy service for people who need support with their rights under the mental health act.

Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA)
A new type of statutory advocacy introduced by the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The Act gives some people who lack capacity a right to receive support from an Independent Mental Capacity Advocate. The IMCA service is provided for any person, aged 16 years or older, who has no one able to support and represent them, and who lacks capacity to make a decision about a long-term care move, serious medical treatment, adult protection procedures or a care review. Such a person will have a condition that affects their ability to make decisions. Independent Mental Capacity Advocates generally work for advocacy providers who are not part of a local authority or the NHS.

J

Justice:
The obligation to treat people fairly, equally and justly.  It is about the even-handed, apt use and fair distribution of care.

L

Learning Disability
A learning disability is a reduced intellectual ability and difficulty with everyday activities – for example household tasks, socialising or managing money – which affects someone for their whole life. Some people with a learning disability also have other physical and emotional conditions, and may receive more than one diagnosis.

Learning Disability Partnership Boards:
These were set up in all local authority areas following publication of the Valuing People White Paper in 2001.Their purpose is to oversee the interagency planning and commissioning of comprehensive, integrated and inclusive services that provide a genuine choice of service options to people in their local community.

M

Mental Capacity Act 2005
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 provides a statutory framework to empower and protect vulnerable people who are not able to make their own decisions. It makes it clear who can take decisions, in which situations, and how they should go about this. It also enables people to plan ahead for a time when they may lose capacity.

Mental Health Act 2007
Amends the Mental Health Act 1983 (the 1983 Act), the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. Amendments to the Mental Act 1983 include the introduction of Independent Mental Health Advocates, and changes to the definition of mental disorder. The Mental Health Act 2007 received Royal Assent on 19 July 2007.

N
 
Normalisation:
A set of principles that underlie the idea that people should live in ordinary places, doing ordinary things, with ordinary people: essentially experiencing the ‘normal’ patterns of everyday life.

O

Occupational Therapist (OT)
Occupational therapists work with people of all ages, helping them to carry out the activities that they need or want to do in order to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. They work with anyone who may be experiencing physical, psychological and/or social problems, either from birth or as a result of trauma, illness or ageing. An OTs goal is to help clients have independent, productive, and satisfying lives.

P

Personal care
Personal Care includes: assistance with dressing, eating, drinking, washing and toileting, getting in or out of bed, taking medications as well as advice, encouragement and emotional and psychological support.

Personalisation
A specific policy term associated with the provision of care services that are more person-centred.  It refers to a process whereby individuals are more closely involved in making decisions about their care (for example, through a process of self-assessment) and have the opportunity for greater choice and control over how their care funds are spent (in the form of personal or individual budgets). Across the UK, personalisation is also described as self-directed support or citizen-directed support.

Primary care trust (PCT)
An organisation within the National Health Service of England that organises and funds health (and, to some extent, social) care in a locality. It provides primary and community services, or commissions them from other providers, and is involved in commissioning secondary care.

Professional code of practice
Professional code of practice is a framework of statements of the values and beliefs of a particular professional group.  They are designed to serve the interests of the profession and to protect the public by regulating the behaviour of a profession, providing guidance in practice and a framework for discipline. Often they serve as public declarations of the values upheld by a particular occupational group.

Psychiatrist
A medical doctor who has undertaken further specialist training in mental health, who makes diagnoses using categories of mental illness and who can prescribe medication and other treatments. Has the power to recommend detention under mental health legislation.

Psychological
Relating to the mind or emotions. Psychological research deals with mental processes and behaviours.

Psychologist
Someone who studies the mind and behaviour of people. Psychologists can specialise in various areas such as mental health work and educational and occupational psychology. Research psychologists study perception, cognition, attention, emotion, motivation, personality, behaviour and interpersonal relationships.

Psychotherapy
Covers a broad range of talking therapies based on various psychological theories. Some therapies focus on thought processes, some on feelings and some on behaviour; others, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, focus on a mixture of these.

Q

Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance requires that an organisation fully specify what it is going to do for a service user/tenant/patient, then design all of the processes which will deliver that outcome, then carry them out, then check that they were carried out to the agreed standard, then rectify the process if they were not done to standard. This is often called the "Plan-Do-Check-Act" cycle.

R

Regulation
Requires individuals and organisations performing certain activities (for example, medical care, social care, the provision of accommodation) to ensure an appropriate quality. Regulation may include things such as the requirements for the training of practitioners, ensuring the health and safety of staff and standards of the premises, information provision or service management.

S

Social worker
Social workers work with people who use social services to assess and respond to their care requirements. This usually involves working alongside other professionals to ensure that people who use social services receive the support they need. Social workers help individuals to find solutions to their problems, so that they are able to live more successfully within their communities. Social workers also work with the family and friends of people who use social services.

Speech and Language Therapist
Speech and language therapy is concerned with the management of disorders of speech, language, communication and swallowing in children and adults.

T

Therapeutic Team
Term referring collectively to our experienced, professional team who is concerned with treatment and therapy.

W

Website
Website is a set of web pages containing content (media) such as text, image, videohttp://, audio etc.  for example - www.jeesal.org

X
Y
Z