Mental health words and terms explained
Mental health information can sometimes seem to have a language of its own. You might hear unfamiliar words when talking to your GP or another professional, looking for support, or receiving mental health care.
We've explained some of the most common ones below in plain English.
Can't find what you're looking for? Tell us at hello@hwny.co.uk. We'll keep adding to this page.
Looking for a different health or care term? Take a look at our Health and care words explained guide.
Shortened names, initials and abbreviations
AMHP – Approved Mental Health Professional
A specially trained professional who has particular responsibilities under the Mental Health Act.
An AMHP may be involved in deciding whether someone needs to be assessed or detained under the Mental Health Act.
AMHPs can come from different professional backgrounds, including social work, nursing, occupational therapy and psychology.
CAMHS – Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
Mental health care and support for children and young people.
You may also see different local names used for children's and young people's mental health teams.
CBT – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
A type of talking therapy that looks at how your thoughts, feelings and actions are connected.
It can help you find different ways of dealing with problems and is used for a range of mental health problems, including anxiety and depression.
CMHT – Community Mental Health Team
A team of different mental health professionals who provide care and support to people in the community.
The team can include mental health nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational therapists and social workers.
CPN – Community Psychiatric Nurse
A nurse who specialises in mental health and usually works with people outside hospital.
They may support people at home, at a clinic or in another community setting and can help with things such as managing mental health problems and medicines.
CTO – Community Treatment Order
An arrangement that allows some people who have been detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act to leave hospital and receive treatment in the community, with certain conditions they must follow.
In some circumstances, a person on a CTO can be recalled to hospital.
DBT – Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
A type of talking therapy that can help people understand and manage difficult emotions and develop ways of coping with distress.
ECT – Electroconvulsive Therapy
A treatment that uses a carefully controlled electrical current to cause a brief seizure in the brain while someone is under a general anaesthetic.
It is used for some severe mental health problems when other treatments have not helped or when a rapid response is needed.
EIP – Early Intervention in Psychosis
Specialist care and support for people experiencing psychosis for the first time or who may be at risk of developing psychosis.
The aim is to provide help as early as possible.
EMDR – Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing
A type of psychological therapy that can help people process traumatic experiences and reduce the distress connected with them.
IMHA – Independent Mental Health Advocate
Someone specially trained to help certain people understand their rights under the Mental Health Act and have a say in their care and treatment.
MCA – Mental Capacity Act
A law designed to protect and support people who may not be able to make some decisions for themselves.
It also sets out how decisions should be made when someone does not have the mental capacity to make a particular decision.
MHA – Mental Health Act
The law covering when and how some people with a mental health problem can be assessed, treated and, in certain circumstances, detained in hospital.
It also sets out rights and safeguards for people receiving care under the Act.
NHS Talking Therapies
NHS support for adults with common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
It can include treatments such as CBT, counselling and guided self-help. In many areas, you can contact NHS Talking Therapies yourself without first seeing your GP.
You may previously have heard this called IAPT – Improving Access to Psychological Therapies.
PTSD – Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
A mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing something extremely frightening, distressing or traumatic.
SMI – Severe Mental Illness / Serious Mental Illness
A term used in health and care for some mental health problems that can have a significant effect on someone's everyday life.
Exactly which conditions are included can depend on how the term is being used.
Common mental health words and phrases
Anxiety
A feeling of worry, fear or unease.
Everyone can feel anxious sometimes, but anxiety can become a mental health problem when it is difficult to control or has a significant effect on everyday life.
Care coordinator
A professional who helps organise and coordinate someone's mental health care.
They may be a main point of contact and help make sure the different people involved in someone's care work together.
Compulsion
Something someone feels they have to do repeatedly, often to reduce anxiety or distress.
Compulsions can be actions or things someone does in their mind.
Counsellor
Someone trained to help people talk through difficult feelings, experiences or problems.
Counselling is one type of talking therapy.
Crisis / mental health crisis
When someone's mental health becomes so difficult that they need urgent help or support.
What a crisis looks and feels like can be different for different people.
Crisis plan
A plan setting out what should happen if someone's mental health becomes significantly worse.
It can include warning signs to look out for, things that might help and who should be contacted.
Crisis resolution and home treatment team / crisis team
A specialist mental health team that supports people experiencing a serious mental health crisis.
Where appropriate, the team may provide intensive support at home as an alternative to someone being admitted to hospital.
Delusion
A strongly held belief that is not shared by other people and may not be based in reality.
Delusions can feel completely real to the person experiencing them and can be very distressing.
Depression
A mental health problem that can cause persistent low mood, loss of interest or enjoyment, and other symptoms that affect someone's thoughts, feelings and everyday life.
It is more than simply feeling unhappy or having a bad few days.
Detained / sectioned under the Mental Health Act
When someone is kept in hospital under the Mental Health Act for assessment or treatment because certain legal conditions are met.
People often call this being “sectioned”.
Different sections of the Mental Health Act have different rules about why someone can be detained, for how long and what rights they have.
Dissociation
Feeling disconnected from yourself, your thoughts, feelings, memories or surroundings.
People experience dissociation in different ways. Someone might feel detached from themselves or feel that the world around them is unreal.
First contact mental health practitioner
A mental health professional who works alongside GP practices to help people who contact their GP with mental health needs.
They can assess what support someone may need and help them find appropriate care.
Grounding
Ways of helping someone focus on the present moment when they feel overwhelmed, anxious or disconnected.
Grounding techniques can involve focusing on things you can see, hear, feel or otherwise notice around you.
Hallucination
Hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling or tasting something that seems real but that other people do not experience.
Hearing voices is one example of a hallucination.
Informal / voluntary patient
Someone who agrees to stay in a mental health hospital to receive care and treatment rather than being detained there under the Mental Health Act.
Intrusive thoughts
Unwanted thoughts, images or urges that repeatedly come into someone's mind and can be upsetting or frightening.
Having an intrusive thought does not mean someone agrees with it or wants to act on it.
Medication review
A conversation with a health professional to check someone's medicines, including whether they are helping, whether there are side effects and whether any changes might be needed.
Mental Health Act
A law covering when and how some people with a mental health problem can be assessed, treated and, in certain circumstances, detained in hospital.
It also sets out rights and safeguards for people receiving care under the Act.
Nearest relative
A term used in the Mental Health Act for a particular family member or relative who has certain rights and responsibilities when someone is being assessed or treated under the Act.
The nearest relative has a specific legal meaning and is not necessarily the same person as someone's next of kin.
Peer support / peer support worker
Support provided by someone who uses their own experience of mental health problems and recovery to help other people going through similar experiences.
A peer support worker may work as part of a mental health team.
Psychiatrist
A doctor who specialises in mental health.
Psychiatrists can assess and diagnose mental health conditions, prescribe medicines and recommend other forms of treatment.
Psychologist
A professional trained in understanding thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
Some psychologists specialise in assessing and treating mental health problems using psychological therapies.
Unlike psychiatrists, psychologists are not medical doctors.
Psychosis
When someone experiences or understands reality differently from other people.
This can include hallucinations, such as hearing or seeing things other people do not, or strongly held beliefs that other people do not share.
Psychosis can have different causes and can be part of several different mental health conditions.
Psychotherapist
Someone trained to use talking therapies to help people explore and manage emotional or mental health difficulties.
There are different types of psychotherapy, and psychotherapists may have different professional backgrounds.
Recovery
In mental health, recovery doesn't always mean that all symptoms disappear.
It can mean finding ways to manage mental health difficulties, build a meaningful life and work towards the things that are important to you.
Relapse
When symptoms of a mental health problem return or become worse after a period of improvement.
Risk assessment
A process used to understand whether someone may be at risk of harm and what could help keep them safe.
This can include looking at risks to the person themselves or to other people, as well as things that may help protect them.
Safety plan
A personal plan for what someone can do if they feel unsafe or their mental health becomes significantly worse.
It can include warning signs, things that may help, people to contact and where to get urgent support.
Section 2
A section of the Mental Health Act that can allow someone to be detained in hospital for assessment of their mental health and, if needed, treatment.
There are legal rules about when Section 2 can be used and how long someone can be detained.
Section 3
A section of the Mental Health Act that can allow someone to be detained in hospital for treatment for a mental health condition.
There are legal rules about when Section 3 can be used, how long it can last and the person's rights.
Section 117 aftercare
Care and support that some people are legally entitled to after leaving hospital following detention under certain sections of the Mental Health Act.
It is intended to meet needs connected with someone's mental health and reduce the risk of them needing to return to hospital.
People who qualify for Section 117 aftercare are not charged for the care and support provided under it.
Self-harm
When someone deliberately hurts themselves as a way of dealing with difficult feelings, painful memories or overwhelming experiences.
People self-harm for different reasons. Self-harm does not always mean that someone wants to end their life, although there can be a link between self-harm and suicidal feelings.
Side effects
Unwanted or unexpected effects that can happen when taking a medicine or receiving treatment.
If you're worried about side effects, speak to the professional involved in your care rather than stopping prescribed medicine suddenly.
Suicidal thoughts / suicidal feelings
Thoughts or feelings about ending your own life.
They can range from thoughts about not wanting to be alive to thinking about or planning suicide.
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999 or go to A&E. If you need urgent mental health help but it isn't an emergency, you can contact NHS 111 and select the mental health option.
Talking therapy / psychological therapy
Treatment that involves working with a trained professional to explore thoughts, feelings, behaviours or experiences.
There are different types of talking therapy, including CBT, counselling and psychotherapy.
Tribunal / Mental Health Tribunal
An independent legal body that can consider whether someone should continue to be detained under the Mental Health Act.
Some people detained under the Act can apply to a tribunal to have their detention reviewed.
Trauma
An emotional response to an event or experiences that are extremely distressing, frightening or harmful.
People can respond to trauma in different ways.
Trauma-informed care
An approach that recognises how trauma can affect someone's life and takes this into account when providing care and support.
It aims to help people feel safe, listened to and respected and to avoid causing further distress.
Trigger
Something that brings on or increases a strong emotional or psychological response.
A trigger might be a situation, place, sound, smell, memory or something else connected with a difficult or traumatic experience.
Withdrawal / withdrawal symptoms
Physical or emotional symptoms that can sometimes happen when reducing or stopping certain medicines.
If you're thinking about changing or stopping prescribed mental health medication, talk to the health professional responsible for your care about how to do this safely.
Looking for another health or care term?
We've kept this page focused on words, shortened names and initials that are particularly connected with mental health.
For terms such as referral, primary care, social prescribing, reasonable adjustments, care plan, multidisciplinary team (MDT), health inequalities and safeguarding, see our Health and care words explained guide.
Still can't find what you're looking for?
Mental health language changes, and you may come across words or shortened names that aren't included here.
If there's something you don't understand, get in touch and let us know at hello@hwny.co.uk.
We can help you find information about health and social care in North Yorkshire – and we can add useful terms to this page to help other people too.
