Glossary: Teen Mental Health

Glossary of Key Terms: Adolescent Mental Health

• ACT: Often refers to Assertive Community Treatment, an intensive, integrated mental health treatment model.
• Adaptability: The degree to which an intervention can be modified or tailored to fit the needs of a specific setting or population.
• Antidepressant medications: Medications used to treat depression by affecting the levels of certain chemicals in the brain.
• Antipsychotic Medications: Medications used to treat psychotic disorders like schizophrenia or to manage symptoms of other conditions like bipolar disorder.
• Antisocial peer affiliations: Associating with peers who engage in behavior that is harmful or goes against societal norms.
• Assertiveness training: Therapy that helps individuals express their needs and feelings in a clear and direct manner.
• Behavioral activation: A therapy technique that encourages individuals to increase their participation in enjoyable activities to improve mood.
• Behavioral therapy: A type of therapy that focuses on changing observable behaviors.
• Body Mass Index (BMI): A measure of body fat based on height and weight.
• Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT): A short-term, evidence-based family therapy approach that focuses on changing interaction patterns that contribute to problematic behavior in youth.
• Bulimia: An eating disorder characterized by episodes of binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors, such as purging.
• CFIR domains: The five major domains of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, a widely used framework for understanding factors influencing implementation.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): A type of psychotherapy that focuses on identifying and changing negative thought patterns and behaviors.
• Combination therapy: The use of two or more different treatments together, such as psychological therapy and medication.
• Community-Based Programs (CBR): Mental health programs and services delivered within a community setting rather than a hospital or institution.
• Conduct Disorder: A behavioral and emotional disorder characterized by a persistent pattern of disruptive and aggressive behaviors that violate the rights of others or major societal norms.
• Confidentiality: The ethical principle of keeping information shared in a professional relationship private.
• Confidence Interval (CI): A range of values that is likely to contain the true population parameter.
• Controlling impulses: The ability to regulate and manage spontaneous urges or desires.
• Cultural mistrust: A lack of trust in institutions or individuals from different cultural backgrounds.
• Culture (Implementation): The shared values, beliefs, and norms within an organization or setting that can support or hinder implementation.
• Delaying gratification: The ability to resist the temptation for an immediate reward and wait for a later, greater reward.
• Dependency court: A court that handles cases involving child abuse and neglect, often resulting in children being placed in foster care.
• Design quality and packaging: The way an intervention is structured, presented, and materials are organized.
• Diagnosis (in BSFT): Identifying ineffective or maladaptive interactions, recognizing family strengths, and understanding the interactional patterns that support problematic behavior.
• Eating attitudes and behaviors: Thoughts, feelings, and actions related to food and eating.
• ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy): A medical treatment that involves brief electrical stimulation of the brain while the patient is under anesthesia, primarily used for severe depression and bipolar disorder that has not responded to other treatments.
• Educational supports: Help with completing high school, obtaining a GED, or pursuing post-secondary education or career planning.
• Engaging: The process of involving stakeholders and gaining their buy-in during implementation.
• Evidence-based psychotherapies: Therapeutic approaches that have been supported by research evidence demonstrating their effectiveness.
• Exercise: Planned, structured, and repetitive bodily movement done to improve or maintain physical fitness.
• External Policy and Incentives: Policies, regulations, and financial motivators from outside the implementing organization that can influence implementation.
• Family Drug Treatment Courts (FDTC): Specialized court programs that integrate substance abuse treatment and judicial oversight for families involved in the child welfare or criminal justice systems.
• Feelings and Relationships Unit: A component of the PATHS curriculum teaching the recognition of various emotional states and enhancing empathy.
• General jurisdiction courts: Courts that have broad authority to hear a variety of cases, including civil and criminal matters.
• Help-seeking behaviors: Actions taken by individuals to find assistance for mental health problems.
• Helpfulness of prior mental health care: Positive experiences with past mental health treatment, which can encourage future help-seeking.
• Implementation: The process of putting a plan or intervention into practice.
• Independent living skills/supports: Skills and resources that help individuals live on their own, such as budgeting, cooking, and managing household tasks.
• Innovation Participants: Individuals who are directly involved in delivering or receiving the intervention.
• Internalization or acceptance of societal ideals relating to appearance: The degree to which individuals adopt and believe in societal standards of beauty and appearance.
• Joining: A component of BSFT involving the therapist engaging with the family system, understanding resistance, and involving the family in therapy.
• Jurisdiction: The official power to make legal decisions and judgments.
• Juvenile court: A court with special jurisdiction over minors who are accused of committing crimes or who are neglected or abused.
• Key Stakeholders: Individuals or groups who have a vested interest in the implementation and outcomes of an intervention.
• Lithium: A specific mood-stabilizing medication mentioned as effective for adolescents.
• Logistical factors (help-seeking): Practical barriers to accessing help, such as transportation, cost, and availability of services.
• Media literacy and advocacy approach: An approach that involves critically analyzing media messages related to body image and advocating for healthier portrayals.
• Mental health literacy: Knowledge and beliefs about mental health conditions and their treatment.
• Meta-analysis: A statistical technique that combines the results of multiple studies to produce a single estimate of the effect size.
• MHC: Mental Health Conditions.
• MH and SA tx: Mental Health and Substance Abuse treatment.
• Mindfulness-Based Intervention (MBI): Therapeutic approaches that involve practicing mindfulness techniques, such as meditation and conscious breathing, to improve mental well-being.
• Mood Stabilizing Medications: Medications used to treat mood disorders like bipolar disorder by helping to stabilize extreme mood swings.
• Networks and Communications: The social structures and communication channels within an organization or setting that affect implementation.
• Normalization of symptoms: Viewing symptoms of mental health problems as normal or typical, leading to a delay in seeking help.
• Odds Ratio (OR): A measure of association between an exposure and an outcome, comparing the odds of the outcome in the exposed group to the odds in the unexposed group.
• Offender recidivism: The tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend.
• Outreach: Efforts to connect with individuals in the community who may need mental health services and inform them about available support.
• PATHS curriculum: A comprehensive social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum designed for children and adolescents.
• Peer court: A diversion program in which young people are sentenced by a jury of their peers for minor offenses.
• Peer leadership/mentor supports: Guidance and support provided by individuals with lived experience.
• Perceived stigma: An individual's belief about the negative attitudes and discrimination that others hold towards people with mental health conditions.
• Personal recovery approach: A philosophy in mental health treatment that emphasizes an individual's capacity for hope, healing, and self-determination in managing their mental health.
• Pharmacotherapy: The treatment of disease by means of drugs.
• Phase I (Maudsley Method): The initial phase (sessions 1-10) where parents are empowered and made responsible for their adolescent's re-feeding, forming an alliance around consistent rules related to food.
• Problem-solving, decision-making steps: A structured approach to identifying problems, generating solutions, and choosing the best course of action.
• Psychological therapy: Talking therapies or counseling aimed at improving mental health.
• Readiness and Self-Control "Turtle" Unit: A component of the PATHS curriculum focusing on developing self-control and problem identification skills.
• Readiness for Implementation: The extent to which an organization or setting is prepared to adopt and implement a new intervention.
• Reading and interpreting social cues: The ability to understand nonverbal communication and social signals from others.
• Relapse prevention: Strategies and skills taught to individuals to help them avoid returning to problematic behaviors after a period of change.
• Remission: The reduction or disappearance of symptoms of a disease.
• Restructuring (in BSFT): Transforming maladaptive family interactions by developing a plan for change, working in the present, reframing, and addressing alliances and boundaries.
• Risperidone: A specific antipsychotic medication mentioned for treating schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder in adolescents.
• School-Based Mental Health Services (SBMHS): Mental health services provided within a school setting.
• Self-esteem: A person's overall sense of self-worth or personal value.
• Self-referral: The ability for individuals to seek out and access services or programs on their own, without needing a formal referral from a professional.
• Self-reliance: The ability to depend on oneself rather than seeking help from others.
• Self-stigma: The internalization of negative societal stereotypes about mental illness, leading to negative self-perceptions.
• Self-talk: The internal dialogue or thoughts a person has, which can influence their feelings and behaviors.
• Service Coordination/CM: The process of coordinating and managing various services and supports for an individual, also known as Case Management.
• SGA: Second-Generation Antipsychotic.
• Social skills training: Therapy that teaches individuals how to interact effectively with others.
• Standard Mean Difference (SMD): A standardized measure of the effect size, used when studies measure the outcome on different scales.
• Stigma: Negative attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that discriminate against individuals with mental health conditions.
• Suicidal ideation: Thoughts about suicide.
• Systematic review: A comprehensive summary of the literature on a specific topic, using systematic methods to search, appraise, and synthesize findings.
• The Maudsley Method: A family-based treatment approach for adolescent anorexia nervosa that places parents in charge of the adolescent's eating behavior and uses food as medicine.
• Transition Services: Support and programs designed to help young people with mental health conditions move successfully into adulthood.
• Understanding perspectives of others: The ability to see a situation from another person's point of view.
• Vocational supports (SE): Assistance with job training, job placement, and maintaining employment, often referring to Supported Employment.