Glossary of Terms Commonly Used in Mental Health, Page 7

By Dr Greg Mulhauser, Managing Editor

This glossary provides definitions of many commonly used mental health terms and is based on a mental health dictionary supplied by the US Government’s Department of Health and Human Services, with updates added by editor Dr Greg Mulhauser.

Article Contents

I – L

Indemnity plan: Indemnity insurance plans are an alternative to managed care plans. These plans charge consumers a set amount for coverage and reimburse (fully or partially) consumers for most medical services.
Independent living services: Support for a young person living on his or her own. These services include therapeutic group homes, supervised apartment living, and job placement. Services teach youth how to handle financial, medical, housing, transportation, and other daily living needs, as well as how to get along with others.
Individualized services: Services designed to meet the unique needs of each child and family. Services are individualized when the caregivers pay attention to the needs and strengths, ages, and stages of development of the child and individual family members. Also see appropriate services and family-centered services.
Individual Therapy: Therapy tailored for a patient/client that is administered one-on-one.
Information and Referral Services: Information services are those designed to impart information on the availability of clinical resources and how to access them. Referral services are those that direct, guide, or a client/patient with appropriate services provided outside of your organization.
In Home Family Services: Mental health treatment and support services offered to children and adolescents with mental illness and to their family members in their own homes or apartments.
Inpatient hospitalization: Mental health treatment provided in a hospital setting 24 hours a day. Inpatient hospitalization provides: (1) short-term treatment in cases where a child is in crisis and possibly a danger to his/herself or others, and (2) diagnosis and treatment when the patient cannot be evaluated or treated appropriately in an outpatient setting.
Intake/ Screening: Services designed to briefly assess the type and degree of a client's/patient's mental health condition to determine whether services are needed and to link him/her to the most appropriate and available service. Services may include interviews, psychological testing, physical examinations including speech/hearing, and laboratory studies.
Intensive case management: Intensive community services for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness that are designed to improve planning for their service needs. Services include outreach, evaluation, and support.
Intensive Residential Services: Intensively staffed housing arrangements for clients/patients. May include medical, psychosocial, vocational, recreational or other support services.
Interpersonal Psychotherapy: Through one-on-one conversations, this approach focuses on the patient's current life and relationships within the family, social, and work environments. The goal is to identify and resolve problems with insight, as well as build on strengths.

Legal Advocacy: Legal services provided to ensure the protection and maintenance of a client's/patient's rights.
Length of Stay: The duration of an episode of care for a covered person. The number of days an individual stays in a hospital or inpatient facility.
Licensing: In some countries, including the United States, the practice of counselling, therapy, psychology and related disciplines is regulated through a system of licensure. In the United States, licensing requirements are set separately for each state and for each field of practice by independent licensing boards. It is important to note that licensing in and of itself has no bearing upon actual clinical effectiveness or outcome, as illustrated by several decades of scientific research into effectiveness and efficacy. (Also see the review at this site of Hubble, et al. 1999.)
Living Independently: A client who lives in a private residence and requires no assistance in activities of daily living.
Local Mental Health Authority: Local organizational entity (usually with some statutory authority) that centrally maintains administrative, clinical, and fiscal authority for a geographically specific and organized system of health care.