1997 Community Guide

Glossary of Terms

Access: An individual's ability to obtain services to achieve the best possible outcomes. Barriers to access may be structural, financial, or personal. The ease of access is determined by components such as availability of services, their acceptability to individuals, transportation, hours of operation, language, and cultural competencies.

Accountability: The state of being answerable to the community, to consumers of a product or service, or to supervisory groups such as a board of directors; also a profession's obligation to reveal clearly what its functions and methods are and to provide assurances to clients that its practitioners meet specific standards of competence.

Aftercare: The continuing treatment, physical maintenance, and social support of formerly treated clients during extended convalescence (the process or period of recovery after illness) or social transition back to the community.

Ancillary Services: Supportive of primary services, e.g. pharmacy services.

Appropriate and Comprehensive Services: Services matched to the level of needs, strengths, and preferences of clients/patients. See also "Wrap-around Services".

At- Risk: See "Risk Factors".

Best Practice: Programs or services which research or expert opinion has shown to be effective.

Case Management: A procedure to plan, seek, coordinate and monitor services from a variety of agencies and staff on behalf of a client or other significant members of the client's support system. The case manager assesses a client's needs, develops a comprehensive individualized service plan, coordinates services, advocates for the client, monitors the client's progress and frequently reassesses the client's needs.

Client's Rights: The power or privilege to which a client is justly entitled. Guaranteed by the constitutions and laws of the United States and the State of Texas unless they have been restricted by specific provisions of law. Some examples include the right to impartial access to treatment, regardless of race, nationality, religion, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or disability; and the right to a humane treatment environment that ensures protection from harm, provides privacy to as great a degree as possible with regard to personal needs, and promotes respect and dignity for each individual.

Collaboration: A mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship entered into by two or more organizations to achieve common goals without duplicating services. The relationship includes: commitment to mutual relationships and goals; a jointly developed structure and shared responsibility; mutual authority and accountability for success; and sharing of resources and rewards. Peterson, A.H. Wilder Foundation.

Community: A group of individuals or families that share certain values, services, institutions, interests, or geographic proximity.

Community-based Services: Services provided to individuals, family members, or other caregivers in the community, e.g. schools, churches, etc., rather than in an institution. These services are an alternative to facility-based services or institutionalization.

Community Norms: Standards of behavior that are supported by the community through social pressure, policies, and laws.

Continuum of Care: A comprehensive array of services available at any intensity or level of need required to adequately address the needs of an individual so that they may attain their maximum potential.

Co-occurring Health Conditions: Health condition(s) that is(are) associated with a person having another health condition, e.g. having either an alcohol or mental disorder increases a person's risk of having the other diagnosis.

Coordination: An action whereby two or more entities work together and take on needed roles but function relatively independent of each other. Resources are acknowledged and can be made available to others for specific purposes.

Credentialling: Process of verifying qualifications and training of providers.

Crisis Intervention: Emotional support, guidance, information, material assistance, education and/or counseling provided by counselors, mental health professionals, or specially trained volunteers/peers to individuals experiencing an emotionally stressful event or traumatic change.

Critical Conditions: Barriers to the vision. Primary needs and challenges. Determined by assessing the status of how things are in the community. Community condition indicators which can be tracked.

Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services: Services which value and address the cultural background and language spoken by clients.

Desired Community Impacts: Desired direction of change in the community's health and well-being.

Distance Learning: Learning which occurs at a distance from the instructor, examples would be correspondence courses, TV courses, Internet interactive courses and video classrooms.

Early Intervention: An action or activity intended to prevent a risk taking activity or behavior from happening or that reduces the risk of a harmful condition progressing or occurring. See also "Prevention".

Eligibility: The meeting of specific qualifications to receive certain benefits; the criteria used by public assistance programs to determine which people may receive help. For example, to be eligible for the Food Stamp program, a person must meet certain income requirements, and to be eligible for Medicare a person must be above a certain age.

Family-focused: Programs and services which recognize and address family dynamics that may affect the primary consumer.

High Risk: See "Risk Factors".

Holistic Approach: An approach or system that emphasizes the importance of the whole and the interdependence of its parts.

Home-based Services: Services provided to family members or other caregivers in their home or usual environment rather than in an institution. These services are an alternative to facility-based services or institutionalization.

Multi-disciplinary Provider Network: Grouping of providers from an array of disciplines with various training and qualifications.

Outcomes: Specific, measurable desired changes in conditions (knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors) resulting from strategies.

Outreach: To bring services and information about the availability of services to people in their homes or other environments they frequent.

Prevention: Actions taken to minimize and eliminate those social, psychological, or other conditions known to cause or contribute to physical and mental illness and socioeconomic problems. An action or activity that protects and promotes self-sufficiency, safety, health, and healthy behaviors and reduces or controls risks for disease, disability and dysfunction. Three types of prevention include: primary - prevention activities carried out before an illness/condition manifests; secondary - once illness manifests, prevention activities prevent reoccurrence or exacerabation of the illness/condition; tertiary - prevention activities prevent further deterioration from the illness/condition.

Primary Services: Main focus of a provider's efforts, e.g. psychiatric treatment.

Protective Factors: Opposite of "Risk Factors". Same as "Resiliency Factors". Biological, psychological, or social conditions as well as aspects of a person's environment which protect against the development of problems.

Resiliency and Coping Skills: Ability of an individual to develop strategies to manage new and varied stressors in life. (See also "Protective Factors".)

Risk Factors: Biological, psychological, or social conditions which might influence or increase the likelihood of an individual's developing, maintaining or increasing harmful behaviors or becoming more susceptible to conditions that reduce standards of health/well being, independent functioning, and/or community integration. People with risk factors are often referred to as "High-Risk" or "At-Risk" populations.

Second Chance Education: Education and training which occurs outside of traditional classrooms, often after traditional education is completed (or aborted): e.g - occupational skills training, academic remediation, job readiness training.
Service Coordination/Linkages: The referral of clients/patients to needed services outside the scope of what providers can offer in their own programs. Relationships among providers, programs, agencies, and staff including formalized working relationships, such as collaborations, shared projects or events planning, shared facilities, cooperative working agreements, memorandums of understanding, informal networking, shared outreach, interagency case conferences, and community meetings.

Strategies: Actions undertaken which build on assets and strengths to produce Desired Community Impacts. The actions are based on what is effective and take into consideration policy, legislation, target populations, and geographic areas.

Support Services: A variety of services provided to a client or household to promote well-being and enable them to live as independently as possible.

Treatment Plan: Document outlining areas of concern, client needs and strengths to be addressed in service provision as agreed upon by the client and provider.

Vision: A positive, general, global statement that describes the ideal state of the community.

Wraparound Services: Any service, both primary and ancillary, within a comprehensive, continuum of care which is provided to ensure that as many of the needs of the client/patient are met as possible.

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