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Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Glossary
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Information about mental health and suicide prevention can sometimes include language you might not be familiar with. These terms are used commonly when talking about suicide prevention.
B
Best Practices
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Comprehensive suicide prevention plans
Plans that use a multi-faceted approach to addressing the problem. For example, including interventions targeting biopsychosocial, social, and environmental factors.
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Confidentiality
The principle in medical ethics that the information a patient or client reveals to a health care provider is private and has limits on how and when it can be disclosed to a third party.
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Contagion
A phenomenon whereby susceptible persons are influenced toward suicidal behavior through knowledge of another person’s suicidal acts.
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Crisis center
A facility or call center where people going through personal crises can obtain help or advice, either in person or over the phone.
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Crisis counseling
Brief counseling focused on minimizing stress, providing emotional support and improving immediate coping strategies. Like psychotherapy, crisis counseling involves assessment, planning and treatment, but the scope of service is much more specific.
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Gatekeepers
People in a community who have face-to-face contact with large numbers of community members as part of their usual routine; they may be trained to identify people at risk of suicide and refer them to treatment or supporting services as appropriate.
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Imminent risk
A situation where a person’s current risk status is believed to indicate actions that could lead to his or her suicide.
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Intervention
A strategy or approach that is intended to prevent an outcome or to alter the course of an existing condition (such as providing lithium for bipolar disorder or strengthening social support in a community).
Means restriction
Techniques, policies, and procedures designed to reduce access or availability to means and methods of deliberate self-harm.
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Mental disorder
A diagnosable illness characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior (or some combination thereof) associated with distress that significantly interferes with an individual’s cognitive, emotional or social abilities; often used interchangeably with mental illness.
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Mental health
The capacity of people to interact with one another and the environment in ways that promote subjective well-being, optimal development, and use of mental abilities.
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Mental health problem
Diminished cognitive, social or emotional abilities, but not to the extent that the criteria for a mental disorder are met.
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Mental health services
Health services that are specially designed for the care and treatment of people with mental health problems, including mental illness. Includes hospital and other 24-hour services, intensive community services, ambulatory or outpatient services, medical management, case management, intensive psychosocial rehabilitation services, and other intensive outreach approaches to the care of individuals with severe disorders.