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The following terms are commonly used by psychiatric and other medical providers, law enforcement and lawyers in the criminal justice system, and in literature you may read about mental illness. Knowing and using this language will help keep everyone on the same page.
Anosognosia: a neurological condition that impairs awareness of mental illness. Present in 40-60% of persons with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, it often leads to a refusal to accept treatment.
Assertive community treatment (ACT): a team approach to providing rehabilitation and support to individuals who require intensive services in order to live in the community; also known as PACT
Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT): a process whereby a judge orders a qualifying person with symptoms of mental illness to adhere to a mental health treatment plan while living in the community. Forty-seven states have laws authorizing some form of AOT, which operates under a number of different terms (“involuntary outpatient commitment,” “mandated outpatient treatment” and others).
Civil commitment: a legal process through which an individual with severe mental illness is court-ordered into treatment in a hospital (inpatient) or in the community (see AOT above)
Conditional release: discharge from inpatient psychiatric commitment conditioned upon receiving continued treatment as an outpatient living in the community
Crisis intervention training (CIT): a specialized law enforcement unit comprised of officers who have received training in how to interact with individuals experiencing a psychiatric crisis
Dangerousness (“danger to self/others”): grounds for civil commitment in all states. Many states provide additional, alternative grounds for civil commitment, e.g., “gravely disabled.”
Emergency hospitalization: temporary confinement in a treatment facility during which the person in psychiatric crisis is evaluated by mental health professionals to determine whether civil commitment is appropriate or necessary; may be called an emergency “hold, “pickup” or “detention”
Guardian/conservator: a person appointed by a court to exercise some or all of the legal rights of an incapacitated person
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act): a federal law that includes standards to protect certain types of personal health care information by restricting access by third parties
Interdisciplinary team (IDT): a team approach in a clinical setting; typically consists of a psychiatrist, a case manager, a nurse and a peer specialist (an individual whose mental illness is stable)
Medication over objection: the process of involuntarily administering medication to a person undergoing court-ordered hospitalization who objects to or refuses medications; requires an additional court order in many states
Psychiatric advance directive: a document in which an adult states in advance the wish for psychiatric care in the event that he or she becomes ill and loses capacity for decision-making
Serious/severe mental illness: an umbrella term without a universal definition; most commonly applied to disabling psychiatric diseases with psychotic features (e.g., schizophrenia, severe bipolar disorder)