Mental health language and terminology - explained
This is your jargon buster for mental health services.
On this page we’ve listed the acronyms and phrases that we use the most on our website, and that you'll often come across when accessing NHS mental health services and support at home or in the community.
We want to make our information easy to understand for everyone, whether you know lots about health and social care, or whether you know very little.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for here, please tell us. We will keep adding phrases, words and acronyms over time.
Community Mental Health Transformation Programme - is a five-year national programme funded by NHS England to improve the lives of people with serious mental illness and the way they're supported in their local communities.
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV) - provides mental health, learning disability and eating disorders services. It serves a population of around two million people living in County Durham, Darlington and North Yorkshire (excluding the district of Craven who are served by Bradford District Foundation Trust).
Mental health ‘system’ - refers to the people, organisations and resources that deliver mental health services at population level including community mental health, GPs and inpatient services.
Place-based / At place - refers to the geographical locations across an area.
NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression (formerly known as Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT)) - was developed to improve the delivery of, and access to, evidence-based, NICE recommended, psychological therapies for depression and anxiety disorders within the NHS.
Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) - provide care and treatment for people with serious mental health difficulties, including but not limited to psychotic illnesses, mood and personality disorders, eating disorders and people requiring mental health rehabilitation.
Community Physiatrist Nurse (CPN) - work outside hospitals and visit people in their own homes, out-patient departments or GP surgeries. They can help to talk through problems and give practical advice and support. They can also give medicines and keep an eye on their effects.
Health inequalities – means the differences in care and access to services that people receive which are both avoidable and unfair. This is often due to a person’s health status, which can be based on four factors, their income, geographical location (for example, rural or urban), a protected characteristic (for example, gender or disability), and social exclusion, such as being homeless.
Seldom heard - refers to under-represented people who use or might potentially use health or social services and who are less likely to be heard by these service professionals and decision-makers.
Severe/serious mental illness (SMI) - refers to people with psychological problems that are often so debilitating that their ability to engage in functional and occupational activities is severely impaired.
Task and Finish group - is a time limited group set up as an action subgroup of a larger committee or meeting with the aim of delivering a specified objective.
Primary care - is often the first point of contact for people in need of healthcare, usually provided by professionals such as GPs, dentists and pharmacists.
Secondary care - which is sometimes referred to as 'hospital and community care', and can either be planned (elective) care such as a cataract operation, or urgent and emergency care such as treatment for a fracture or accident.
First contact mental health practitioners - are working into Primary Care Network’s across North Yorkshire, York and Selby to support GP surgeries to assess people contacting them with mental health needs. With their expertise and experience the mental health workers will be able to decide whether someone requires referral to specialist mental health services, or whether an alternative source of support would be more beneficial.
NHS Trusts - an NHS trust is an organisational unit within the NHS, generally serving either a geographical area or a specialised function (such as an ambulance service or hospital service).
NHS Foundation Trust - A Foundation Trust is an NHS organisation which gives greater opportunities for people, patients and staff who have a genuine interest in the Trust to have more of a say about the way in which services are provided. Foundation Trust status is only awarded to hospitals who have shown they demonstrate the highest clinical standards, quality leadership and a great record of patient responsiveness and safety.
Quantitative research - is the process of collecting and analysing numerical data. This includes data from surveys or questionnaires.
Qualitative research - is the process of collecting and analysing non-numerical data. This includes data captured, for example by people in focus groups or one-two-one discussions.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) - is a psycho-social intervention that aims to reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions, primarily depression and anxiety disorders.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy - involves moving your eyes a specific way while you process traumatic memories. EMDR's goal is to help you heal from trauma or other distressing life experiences.
Primary Care Networks (PCNs) - are groups of GP practices working together to focus local patient care.
Multidisciplinary team (MDT) - is a group of health and care staff who are members of different organisations and professions (e.g., GPs, social workers, nurses), that work together to make decisions regarding the treatment of individual patients and service users.
Social prescribing - can meet many different types of non-clinical need, ranging from support and advice for individuals experiencing debt, unemployment, housing or mobility issues to tackling loneliness by building social connections through joining local community groups, such as walking, singing or gardening groups
Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) - the VCSE sector is the 'catch all' term that includes any organisation working with Social Purposes.
Peer Support Worker - provides formalised peer support and practical assistance to help mental health service users regain control over their lives and their own unique recovery process.
Care Programme Approach (CPA) - describes the approach mental health trusts use in mental healthcare to assess, plan, review and coordinate the range of treatment, care and support needed for people in contact with their services who have complex care needs.
Co-production - is a way of working that involves people who use health and care services, carers and communities in equal partnership; and which engages groups of people at the earliest stages of service design, development and evaluation.
You may also find the NHS Confederation website useful for understanding clinical abbreviations and acronyms that are less common, that you might come across in hospitals, doctors surgeries, or anywhere else you receive medical treatment .
