Forms
Client Intake Form
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Glossary of Terms
A
Accessible Services:
Services that are affordable, located nearby, and open during evenings and weekends.
Staff is sensitive to and incorporates individual and cultural values. Staff is also sensitive to barriers that may keep a person from getting help. For example, an adolescent may be more willing to attend a support group meeting in a church or club near home than to travel to a mental health center. An accessible service can handle consumer demand without placing people on a long waiting list.
Acquittal:
Judgment of the court, based on the verdict of a jury or a judicial officer, that the defendant is not guilty of the offense(s) for which he or she has been tried.
Activities of Daily Living (ADLs):
Refers to the skills necessary to live independently, e.g., washing clothes, paying bills, cooking, etc.
Addiction:
Strong emotional and /or psychological dependence on a substance such as alcohol or drugs that has progressed beyond voluntary control.
ADHD:
See Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Adjudication Hearing:
Stage in juvenile court proceedings in which a judge presides on behalf of the juvenile to determine if he or she actually committed the alleged offense. If the judge rejects the allegations, the juvenile is released. The judge may believe the allegations to be true but withhold adjudication on condition that the juvenile agree to enroll in a community program that the court feels will help resolve the problem.
Adolescence:
Stage of growth and development ranging from about 11 or 12 years old to 17 or 18 years old in which major physiologic, cognitive, and behavioral changes take place.
According to some theorists, important developmental tasks need to be accomplished (e.g., developing an identity, becoming independent, etc.).
Affect:
Generalized feeling tone (usually considered more persistent than emotion, less so than mood). It is the external, observable manifestation of emotion (e.g., flat, blunted, constricted, expansive, labile, etc.).
Affective Disorder:
Any disorder that affects your mood (depression, bi-polar disorder, anxiety, panic).
Affective Psychosis:
A psychotic reaction in which the predominant feature is a severe disorder of mood or emotional feelings. Can be related to a major depressive or bipolar disorder.
Agitation:
Restlessness, inability to concentrate or remain motionless.
Agoraphobia:
Marked fear of being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult or embarrassing; fear of being out of control or fear of losing control when in a public place, e.g., a restaurant, shopping mall, or classroom. Fear of being in a place or situation in which help might not be available in the event of a panic attack.
Alcoholic:
One whose continued or excessive drinking results in impairment of personal health, disruption of family and social relationships, and loss of economic security.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA):
A self-help organization that uses a 12-Step program to assist alcoholics in achieving and maintaining sobriety. Acknowledgment of loss of control over alcohol and willingness to seek help through a "higher power" are a major part of the organization's program.
Alcoholism:
A chronic disorder characterized by dependence on alcohol, repeated excessive use of alcoholic beverages, development of withdrawal symptoms on reducing or ceasing alcohol intake, morbidity that may include cirrhosis of the liver, and decreased ability to function socially and vocationally. Currently believed by many to be a disease with strong genetic links.
Anhedonia:
The inability to experience pleasure. In major depression, anhedonia is commonly noted as loss of pleasure in activities or experiences deemed as pleasurable or enjoyable by the client prior to the onset of the depressed episode.
Anorexia Nervosa:
An eating disorder primarily affecting adolescent girls and young adult women, characterized by a pathological fear of becoming fat, distorted body image, excessive dieting, and emaciation. No loss of appetite occurs until the late stages of the disease.
Antabuse (Disulfiram):
A drug given to alcoholics that produces adverse effects such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness, flushing, and tachycardia if alcohol is consumed. The drug's effectiveness is largely due to its role as a deterrent.
Antidepressant Medication:
Any of three families of medicines (tricyclics, MAOIs, and SSRIs) used to take away or reduce clinical depression. Antidepressants are not stimulants or uppers, or "happy" pills. They are also not habit forming. (Imipramine, Nortiptyline, Doxepin are commonly used tricyclic antidepressants. Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil are commonly used SSRIs.
Anxiety:
Nonspecific, unpleasant feeling of apprehension, discomfort, and, in some cases, dread and impending doom that is manifested physically by such symptoms as motortension, autonomic hyperactivity, or hyperattentiveness. Symptoms prompt the person to take some action to seek relief. Anxiety can be communicated interpersonally.
Appropriate Services:
Designed to meet the specific needs of each individual child and family. For example, one family may need day treatment, while another may need home-based services.
Appropriate services for one child and family may not be appropriate for another. Appropriate services usually are provided in the child's community.
Assertive Community Treatment (ACT):
The treatment staff (Psychiatrist, Nurse, Case Manager, Therapist and/or Supportive Employment and sometimes others), based on the need of the consumer, goes to the consumer to provide treatment.
Assessment:
A process of individualized evaluation that comprehensively considers specific mental health or substance abuse problems and treatment needs of one person. An assessment is more thorough and focused than a screening, which serves more of a triage function. While particular assessments can be performed to address specific questions about an individual, typical assessments identify psychological needs and offer recommendations for consideration by the court, treating professionals, and correctional programs regarding needed interventions.
ASD:
See Autism Spectrum Disorder
ATSR:
Assessment Team Summary Report.
AT:
Assistive Technology. The IEP team must consider a child's needs for assistive technology.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD):
ADHD now incorporates what used to be abbreviated ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder -- a condition where people have a hard time paying attention, staying focused, and often has a component of needing to be in perpetual motion.
A behavioral inhibition disorder in which youth appear to have difficulty exhibiting control over their outward behaviors, typically displaying actions that appear louder, faster, and more powerful than the behaviors of their peers.
Autism Spectrum Disorder: (ASD)
Any disorder that falls under the category of "autism" from high functioning (often called Asperger's Syndrome) to severe mental retardation along with specific characteristics of noninteraction in the social environment and developmental delays that are characteristic of autism.
B
Behavior:
Any observable, recordable, and measurable movement, response, or verbal or nonverbal act demonstrated by an individual.
Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP):
A behavioral intervention plan is developed by the CCC (see Case Conference Committee) and describes what modifications, positive intervention strategies, and skill instruction will be used in an effort to change the student's behavior. It is developed from the information in the FBA (see Functional Behavioral Assessment).
Behavior Modification or Behavioral Therapy:
Treatment that focuses on modifying observable behavior. It focuses on the effects rather than the cause of behavior, such as how the youth is being reinforced by parents or peers for engaging in maladaptive behaviors. The focus is on educating a parent or other significant individuals in a youth's environment on good behavior management. They learn to positively reinforce appropriate behaviors and ignore or punish maladaptive or inappropriate behaviors. Examples include token economies, in which a youth receives points for positive behavior and loses points for negative behavior. Incentives and sanctions in the juvenile justice system are another example.
Bipolar Disorder:
An affective or mood disorder characterized by episodes of mania alternating with periods of depression, with normal mood intervals occurring between the manic and depressive states.
Bipolar Disorder I:
A consumer experiences at least one, and usually many more, manic times -- going back and forth between mania and major depression. Psychosis may be present.
Bipolar Disorder II:
A consumer experiences periods of hypomania -- going back and forth between hypomania and major depression. Hypomania does not cause as many problems as mania and psychotic symptoms are not present.
Blackouts:
Anterograde amnesia, most commonly experienced by alcoholics and persons suffering from an organic brain syndrome. Some believe blackouts are a result of dehydration of brain tissue. The individual retains consciousness with the memory loss.
Blocking:
Difficulty in recollection or interruption of a train of thought or speech.
Blunted Affect:
An extreme restriction in emotional expression in which only minimal degrees of emotions are evident. Restrictions are not as severe as in flattened affect.
Borderline Personality Disorder:
A personality disorder with the essential feature being a pervasive pattern of unstable self-image, mood, and interpersonal relationships. Persons diagnosed with this disorder frequently display mood shifts directed outwardly toward staff to meet their own needs, a mechanism commonly referred to as "splitting." Although many youth in the juvenile justice system display borderline traits, most do not meet DSM-IV criteria for borderline personality disorder. Youth with borderline personality disorder have a long-standing pattern of intense, turbulent relationships and are terrified to be alone. They often cycle between idealizing someone and then hating him or her. Their moods are often intense and erratic, and they frequently have outbursts of anger.
Because of their lack of identity, these youth frequently change their goals, plans, and opinions. Self-mutilation and suicidal behaviors are common in youth who have borderline personality disorder. Because of their age, it is much more common for youth in the juvenile justice system to display borderline personality "traits" rather than the full-blown disorder.
Bulimia:
An eating disorder characterized by recurrent cycles of binge eating followed by episodes of purging. The individual suffers from persistent over-concern with body image and weight but lacks the body image distortion and degree of weight loss experienced by the person with anorexia nervosa.
C
Caregiver:
A person who has special training to help people with mental health problems.
Examples include social workers, teachers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and mentors.
Case Conference Committee (CCC):
A case conference committee is the group of persons described in 511 IAC 7-27-3, including parents and school personnel, who are responsible for the following:
(1) Reviewing evaluation data, identifying the existence of a disability, and determining a student's eligibility for special education and related services.
(2) Developing, reviewing, and revising a student's individualized education program.
(3) Determining the appropriate special education, related services and placement for a student and the setting or settings in which those services will be provided.
(4) Determining other matters, including the provision of a free appropriate public education that are assigned to an IEP team by federal law or to a case conference committee by state law or any rule of the Indiana state board of education.
Case manager:
An individual who organizes and coordinates services and supports for children with mental health problems and their families. (Alternate terms: service coordinator, advocate, and facilitator.)
Case management:
A service that helps people organize appropriate services and supports. A case manager coordinates mental health, social work, educational, health, vocational, transportation, advocacy, respite care, and recreational services, as needed. The case manager makes sure that the changing needs of the child and family are met. (This definition does not apply to managed care.)
Catharsis:
The release of tension and anxiety by recounting and/or acting out past experiences.
C.F.R.:
Code of Federal Regulations.
Chain:
A learned sequence of behaviors that are usually performed in the same order; all behaviors tend to be performed once the first behavior in the chain is completed. Getting dressed in the morning is an example.
Character:
In psychiatry, the sum of the relatively fixed personality traits and habitual modes of response of an individual.
Child Protective Services:
Designed to safeguard the child when abuse, neglect, or abandonment is suspected, or when there is no family to take care of the child. Examples of help delivered in the home include financial assistance, vocational training, homemaker services, and daycare. If in-home supports are insufficient, the child may be removed from the home on a temporary or permanent basis. Ideally, the goal is to keep the child with the family whenever possible.
Children and Adolescents at Risk for Mental Health Problems:
Children are at greater risk for developing mental health problems when certain factors occur in their lives or environments. Factors include physical abuse, emotional abuse or neglect, harmful stress, discrimination, poverty, loss of a loved one, frequent relocation, alcohol and other drug use, trauma, and exposure to violence.
Circumstantial Speech:
Inclusion of many nonessential details in a response.
Classification:
Process through which the educational, vocational, treatment, and security needs of an offender are determined.
Cognition:
Pertaining to the mental processes that include knowing, thinking, learning, judging, and problem solving.
Cognitive Therapy:
Cognitive treatment focuses on the thoughts that a youth has. It is important to identify if these thoughts are distorted or inaccurate, and how they contribute to maladaptive behaviors. Youth are educated on how their thoughts have an impact on feelings and behavior. A cognitive therapist incorporates contingency management and reinforcement techniques to teach self-regulation and new ways of coping and problem solving. Youth are taught alternative ways of solving interpersonal conflict and problems through modeling, practice, rehearsal, and role-play (Kazdin et al.,1989).
Commitment:
Action of a judicial officer ordering that a juvenile subject to judicial proceedings be placed in a particular kind of confinement or residential facility for a specified reason authorized by law; also, the result of the action, that is, the admission to the facility.
Community Mental Health Center:
A community-based facility, or a complex of such facilities, for the prevention and treatment of mental illness. May include a full spectrum of services such as inpatient, outpatient, day hospital, night hospital, emergency, aftercare, rehabilitation, public education, consultation, and evaluation services.
Community Reintegration Planning:
Preparation and strategy for each juvenile offender's release from custody. The plan prepares the juvenile for return to the community in a law-abiding role after release.
Community Residential Program:
Program housed in a structure without the security fences and security hardware typically associated with correctional facilities, such as a converted apartment building or private home. Such a program is not constructed as or intended to be a detention facility.
Compulsion:
An uncontrollable impulse to perform an act or ritual repeatedly. A compulsion may be in response to an obsession (repetitive, persistent thought) as in obsessivecompulsive disorder. The compulsive behavior serves to decrease anxiety. Some examples of rituals are hand washing, cleaning, and checking.
Compulsive Ritual:
Series of acts repetitively carried out under compulsion. As with single compulsions, failure to carry out the ritual results in tension and anxiety.
Conduct Disorder:
A disorder of childhood that is characterized by a persistent pattern of conduct in which the basic rights of others and the rules of society are disrupted or violated.
Many youth who come into contact with the juvenile justice system have been aggressive or deceitful, have violated rules, or destroyed someone's property. Such behavior is often the reason they were arrested. However, just because a youth has been arrested does not automatically mean the youth has conduct disorder. Youth with conduct disorder show a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior that violates rules or the rights of others (e.g., aggression, theft, destruction of property).
These youth typically have little empathy for other people and may lack feelings of guilt or remorse. They are often hostile and aggressive, and tend to blame other people for things they have done.
Confabulation:
The more or less unconscious, defensive "filling in" of actual memory gaps by imaginary experiences, often complex, that are recounted in a detailed, plausible way.
Seen principally in organic psychotic reactions such as Korsakoff's psychosis.
Confrontation:
A process by which a client is told something about himself or herself by a nurse or therapist that encourages self-examination. Also used to clarify an inconsistency or incongruence between what the client says and does.
Constricted:
Narrowed or restricted range, as in emotion; for example, a "constricted affect."
Consumer:
A person who has received or is receiving mental health or addiction services.
Contingency Reinforcement Contract:
A written agreement, which clearly and concisely explains the amount and type of work required of the child, and the amount and type of reinforcer he or she will obtain for the work.
Continuum of Care:
A term that implies a progression of services that a child moves through, usually one service at a time. More recently, it has come to mean comprehensive services. Also see system of care and wraparound services.
Co-Occurring Disorders:
A consumer who has a mental illness and a substance abuse diagnosis at the same time. In some settings, the term co-morbid or dually diagnosed is used interchangeably with the term co-occurring disorder.
Coordinated Services:
Child-serving organizations talk with the family and agree upon a plan of care that meets the child's needs. These organizations can include mental health, education, juvenile justice, and child welfare. Case management is necessary to coordinate services. Also see family-centered services and wraparound services.
Coping Mechanisms:
Techniques that tend to help us deal with anxiety. Usually a conscious process that provides sufficient relief, e.g., exercise, humor.
Correctional Facility:
Facility for the incarceration of individuals accused or convicted of criminal activity.
Crisis Residential Treatment Services:
Short-term, round-the-clock help provided in a nonhospital setting during a crisis. For example, when a child becomes aggressive and uncontrollable, in addition to in-home supports, a parent can temporarily place the child in a crisis residential treatment service. The purposes of this care are to avoid inpatient hospitalization, help stabilize the child, and determine the next appropriate step.
Culture:
The learned values, beliefs, perceptions, and behaviors of specific groups of people. Nurses or therapists value cultural differences and recognize mental disorders within the context of their individual cultures.
Cultural Competence:
Services that are sensitive and responsive to cultural differences. Caregivers are aware of the impact of culture and possess skills to help provide services that respond appropriately to a person's unique cultural differences, including race and ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, or physical disability. They also adapt their skills to fit a family's values and customs.
D
DAPE:
Adapted Physical Education.
Day Hospital:
A special facility or an arrangement within a hospital setting that enables the patient to come to the hospital for treatment during the day and return home at night.
Day Treatment:
Day treatment includes special education, counseling, parent training, vocational training, skill building, crisis intervention, and recreational therapy. It lasts at least 4 hours a day. Day treatment programs work in conjunction with mental health, recreation, and education organizations and may even be provided by them.
Delinquent Youth:
Also referred to as a juvenile delinquent or a criminal-type offender, a youth who has been charged with or adjudicated for conduct that would, under the law of the jurisdiction in which the offense was committed, be a crime if committed by an adult.
Delirium:
A mental state characterized by disorientation and confusion. Anxiety, illusions, or hallucinations may also be present, e.g., the delirium of fever, delirium tremens, etc.
Delirium Tremens (DTs):
An acute, psychotic state usually occurring during reduction or cessation of alcohol intake after a prolonged or copious intake of alcohol; characterized by symptoms such as tremors, hallucinations, or seizures. Requires immediate treatment; may be life threatening.
Delusion:
A fixed belief unrelated to a youth's cultural and educational background, improbable in nature, and not influenced or changed by reason or contrary experience. Categorized as a thought disorder.
Denial:
A defense mechanism that is demonstrated by avoidance of disagreeable realities by the mind's refusal to acknowledge them at a conscious level. May or may not be adaptive, depending on the information being denied.
Depersonalization:
An alteration in the perception or experience of the self in which one's usual sense of reality is temporarily lost or changed. Feeling as if one is detached, in a dreamlike state, or an outside observer of one's mind and body, rather than a participant. May lead to withdrawal.
Depression:
A mood described as feeling dejected and sad with a lowering of functional activity. A depressive disorder usually includes appetite and sleep disturbances, difficulty concentrating, and suicidal ideation.
Detainee:
Juvenile held in local, very short-term confinement while awaiting consideration for pretrial release, first appearance for arraignment, or disposition.
Detention:
Temporary care of a juvenile offender or a juvenile alleged to be delinquent who requires secure custody in a physically restricting facility pending disposition of the case.
Detoxification:
Structured medical or social milieu in which the individual is monitored for withdrawal from the acute physical and psychological effects of drug or alcohol addiction.
Developmental Disability:
A condition a person is born with that causes him not to develop normally. They usually have a lower IQ than those not born with this condition.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV):
The book used by psychologists and psychiatrists to make mental health diagnoses and to differentiate one possible diagnosis from another.
An official manual of mental health problems developed by the American Psychiatric Association. Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and other health and mental health care providers use this reference book to understand and diagnose mental health problems. Insurance companies and health care providers also use the terms and explanations in this book when discussing mental health problems.
Discharge Plan:
A formal written document that describes in detail the transition of the patient from one level of the mental health care system to another.
Discipline:
An educational process by which staff assist children and adolescents to develop the self-control and self-direction necessary to assume responsibilities, make daily living decisions, and learn to live in conformity with accepted levels of social behavior.
Dismissal:
Decision by a court to terminate adjudication of all outstanding charges, an action justified when the pre-interview investigation and the facts disclosed in discussing the case with the juvenile and his or her parents indicate to the probation officer that the case is unfounded or when the evidence is untrustworthy or insufficient and does not warrant or sustain the charges (also referred to as nolle prosequi).
Disorientation:
Loss of awareness of the position of the self in relation to space, time, or other persons.
Disposition Hearing / Dispositional Hearing:
Hearing held subsequent to the adjudicatory hearing in which the judge determines what order of disposition should be made concerning a juvenile adjudicated as delinquent. A disposition may be probation, a warning or reprimand, some form of community service, a fine, or "home detention," in which the juvenile continues to live at home but receives rigorous daily counseling. A more stringent disposition may include training school or group home placement.
Dissociation:
A psychological separation of "splitting off"; an intrapsychic defensive process, which operates automatically and unconsciously. Through its operation, emotional significance and affect are separated and detached from an idea, situation, or object.
Distractibility:
Inability to concentrate or attend to the task on hand; inattentiveness.
Diversion:
The official halting or suspension, at any legally prescribed point after a recorded justice system entry, of formal criminal or juvenile justice proceedings against an alleged offender. The suspension of proceedings may be in conjunction with a referral of that person to a treatment or care program administered by a nonjudicial or a private agency.
Drug Testing:
Technical examination of urine samples to determine the presence or absence of specified drugs or their metabolized traces.
DSM:
See Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - Revision IV
Dually Diagnosed:
A consumer who has a developmental disability and a mental illness. In some settings, the term co-morbid disorder or co-occurring disorder is used interchangeably with the term dually diagnosed.
Due Process:
In the educational context, due process is a procedure initiated by a student's parent, public agency, teacher, or the state educational agency and is conducted by an independent hearing officer when there is a dispute.
Due Process Hearing:
A term for a hearing at which parents have the opportunity to show that the school district is not properly educating their child.
Dyslexia:
Learning disability affecting reading ability. Persons with dyslexia may have difficulty remembering, recognizing, and or reversing written letters, numbers, and words, might read backwards, and have poor handwriting.
Dysthymia:
A chronic disturbance in mood involving depressed mood for at least two years. Less intense than major depression. Characterized by a depletion of usual coping strategies and the tendency to feel worse as the day progresses, most likely due to inability to cope with accumulated stressors.
E
Early Intervention:
A process used to recognize warning signs for mental health problems and to take early action against factors that put individuals at risk. Early intervention can help children get better in less time and can prevent problems from becoming worse.
ECSE:
Early Childhood Special Education.
Education for All Handicapped Children Act.
EAHCA:
Public Law 94-142. Passed in 1975, which makes available a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) for all disabled children in the United States.
Emergency and Crisis Services:
A group of services that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to help during a mental health emergency. Examples include telephone crisis hotlines, suicide hotlines, crisis counseling, crisis residential treatment services, crisis outreach teams, and crisis respite care.
Emergency Detention:
A court order signed by a doctor and a judge stating that a person is a physical threat to himself or others or unable to care for himself. The person is brought to the hospital for up to 72 hours of observation.
Emotional Disability:
Emotional disability or Emotional disturbance typically refers to the manifestation of symptoms of a mental health disorder in a child or adolescent. In the educational context, an emotional disability is a condition that, over a long period of time and to a marked degree, consistently interferes with a student's learning process and adversely affects the student's educational performance.
Empathy:
Appreciation of another's problems and feelings without experiencing the same emotional reaction. To be distinguished from sympathy, which is usually nonobjective and noncritical.
Enabler:
Family member or significant person in an alcoholic's or drug addict's life that contributes to the afflicted person's continued use and abuse of the substance.
Examples of enabling include making excuses for the afflicted person and/or supplying the person with the alcohol or drug.
ESY:
Extended School Year. Want to read more on ESY? Visit our page "ESY--Does your child need services during school breaks, including summer?"
Euphoria:
An exaggerated unrealistic sense of well-being.
Expulsion:
An expulsion is the temporary removal of a student from the student's current placement for more than ten consecutive school days. A student with a disability may be expelled for the same reasons as a student without a disability.
Extinction:
A procedure in which reinforcement that previously followed a behavior is discontinued.
Extrapyramidal Side Effects:
A pathological condition that may occur as a side effect of certain psychotropic drugs.
Usually characterized by muscular rigidity, tremors, and some peculiar, involuntary, movements or postures.
F
Family-Centered Services:Help designed to meet the specific needs of each individual child and family.
Children and families should not be expected to fit into services that do not meet their needs. Also see appropriate services, coordinated services, wraparound services, and cultural competence.
Family Psychotherapy or Family Therapy:
Family therapy is therapeutic contact with the patient's family designed to enhance healthy reciprocal functioning, appropriate role behavior, and subsystem functioning and to increase interpersonal communication. The main idea behind family therapy is that problems of youth are an outcome of disordered relations within family systems.
The therapist meets with the entire family and focuses on interactions between all family members. Family therapists emphasize communication skills, clarification of family roles, and boundaries and attempt to modify the family system to improve the behavior of the youth. Regardless of the treatment approach, mental health treatment of youth should always involve the youth's family (which involves anyone the youth identify as their "family"). The chance of positive outcomes and maintenance of treatment gains is much more likely when significant individuals in the youth's life are involved in the youth's treatment.
Family Support Services:
Help designed to keep the family together, while coping with mental health problems that affect them. These services may include consumer information workshops, inhome supports, family therapy, parenting training, crisis services, and respite care.
Fear:
Responses to actual, present, external danger.
Flat or Blunted Affect:
A lack of emotional range or expression, also referred to as flattened affect.
Flight of Ideas:
Verbal skipping from one idea to another before the last one has been concluded.
Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE):
Special education and related services that are provided in conformity with an IEP (see Individualized Education Plan). In order to comply with the requirement of providing a free appropriate public education, a school district must provide special education and related services that
(A) have been provided at public expense, under public supervision and direction, and without charge;
(B) meet the standards of the State educational agency;
(C) include an appropriate preschool, elementary, or secondary school education in the State involved; and
(D) are provided in conformity with the individualized education program required under 20 U.S.C. S 1414(a)(5).
Functional Analysis:
A procedure for analyzing behavior problems which are socially mediated in order to identify the multiple functions of behavior.
Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA):
A functional behavioral assessment is the organized collection and analysis of information about a student's behavior.
G
Generalized Reinforcers:
Use of tokens, points, and money to reinforce behavior.
Grandiose Delusions:
A delusion in which the individual believes he or she possesses great importance, power, wealth, or intellect.
Grief:
Emotional response to an external and consciously recognized loss; self-limiting and gradually subsiding within a reasonable length of time.
Group Home:
A nonsecure residential program emphasizing family-style living in a homelike atmosphere. Program goals are similar to those for large community residential programs. Although group homes usually house youth who are court committed, they also house abused or neglected youth who are placed by social agencies.
Group Psychotherapy:
Application of psychotherapeutic technology to a group including utilization of interactions of members of the group.
Guided Participation:
The client first watches models engage in a goal behavior and then gradually imitates the model's performance.
H
Hallucinations:
Perceptions the person believes to be real despite evidence to the contrary, e.g., the person perceives something that does not exist. Seen in psychosis or acutely induced by such factors as drugs, alcohol, and stress. They may involve any of the five senses, but auditory and visual are the most common.
Hearing:
A proceeding to determine a course of action, such as the placement of a juvenile offender, or to determine guilt or innocence in a disciplinary matter. Arguments, witnesses, and evidence are heard by a judicial officer or administrative body in making the determination.
HO:
Hearing Officer: A person appointed by the state who acts as a judge in a special education due process hearing.
Home-based services:
Help provided in a family's home either for a defined period of time or for as long as it takes to deal with a mental health problem. Examples include parent training, counseling, and working with family members to identify, find, or provide other necessary help. The goal is to prevent the child from being placed outside of the home. (Alternate term: in-home supports.)
Homicidal
: A state characterized by one person's verbal or behavioral threats to harm or kill another person. Requires immediate intervention.
Hoosier Assurance Plan:
State money that helps a consumer pay for some of their mental health and/or addiction treatment.
HRO:
Hearing Review Officer.
Hyperactivity:
Restless, overactive motor movement and behavior. May be aggressive or destructive. Seen in children with hyperactive conditions or persons experiencing a manic episode.
Hypervigilance:
Increased state of guardedness or watchfulness; may be a sign of escalating anxiety or agitation. May involve scanning behaviors as well.
Hypomania:
A mild form of mania. The consumer will experience increased energy, improved mood or irritability, increased talkativeness, decreased need for sleep, increased social or sexual activity, and increased spending.
I
IBSEA:
Indiana Board of Special Education Appeals.
IDEA:
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
IDELR:
Immediate Detention: A law enforcement officer signs a legal document stating they believe a person has a mental illness, addiction problem, or a developmental disability. The officer believes the person may hurt himself or someone else and the person needs a mental health evaluation. The person is taken to a hospital and will receive a psychiatric evaluation.
The hold is good for up to 24 hours.
Inappropriate Affect:
Affect that is incongruent with the content of the client's verbalizations or ideas.
Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) If a parent believes a school has not properly evaluated his/her child, the parent is entitled to an IEE at school's expense under certain circumstances. The IEE is an evaluation a parent can request the school to pay for when they disagree with the school's evaluation. It should be paid for by the school but performed by someone NOT associated with the school.
Independent Hearing Officers: (IHO)
The persons who are to be neutral parties and who conduct Due Process hearings (a protective safeguard under IDEA) and make decisions about educational procedures and programs -- determining the appropriateness of the program and whether or not proper procedures have been followed.
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 Education Program (IEP):
A written plan developed by a public school team to help an individual child. An IEP includes a statement of the child's present levels of educational performance, measurable annual goals, and outlines specific services that will be offered to help the child meet those goals.
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.
Informed Consent:
Disclosure of a certain amount of information to the patient about the proposed treatment and the attainment of the patient's consent, which must be competent, understanding, and voluntary.
Initial Educational Evaluation:
An initial educational evaluation is conducted to determine the student's eligibility forspecial education.
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.
Insight:
Self-understanding. The extent of a patient's understanding of the origin, nature, and mechanisms of attitudes and behavior. More superficially, recognition by the patient that he or she has a psychiatric disorder.
Intake / Arrest:
Action of taking a juvenile into custody for the purpose of charging him or her with a crime. The juvenile justice process often begins with an investigation by a police officer, either because he or she observes a law violation or because a violation is reported. The police officer may release the juvenile to his or her parents with a warning or reprimand or on condition that the juvenile enroll in a community diversion plan, or the officer may take the juvenile into custody and refer the matter to the juvenile court's intake officer for further processing.
Intake Hearing:
Early stage in juvenile court proceedings in which a court officer makes a legal judgment of the probable cause of the petition. Generally an intake officer receives, reviews, and processes complaints, recommends detention or release, and provides services for juveniles and their families, including diversion and referral to other community agencies.
Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP):
A treatment program that meets several times per week for several hours each day.
The IOP provides ample group and individual treatment services to allow a client to experience benefits of an intense treatment program while still living at home.
ISTEP:
Indiana State Test.
J
Juvenile:
Person under the age of 21 years, or as defined in the local jurisdiction as under the age of majority.
L
Labile Affect:
A pattern of observable behaviors that express emotion characterized by repeated, rapid, abrupt shifts.
Learning Disorders:
Many youth involved with the juvenile justice system suffer from one or more learning disorders. This means their level of achievement on standardized academic tests is significantly lower than what would be expected given their level of intelligence. For example, youth can have an IQ in the average or above-average range, but their reading skills are not near the same range and are much lower. A youth can have a learning disorder in reading, writing expression, or mathematics.
Because learning disorders can significantly affect youth's school performance, these youth can become very frustrated, feel bad about themselves, and may eventually drop out of school.
LD:
Learning Disability.
Lethality:
The likelihood a behavior (e.g., suicide attempt) will result in death.
Local Educational Agency (LEA):
The local educational agency is a public board of education or other public authority legally constituted for either administrative control or direction of publicly funded schools, including school corporations and state-operated schools.
Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
To the maximum extent appropriate, students with disabilities are educated with nondisabled peers.
Loose Associations:
A communication pattern characterized by lack of clarity or connection between one thought and the next.
M
Magical Thinking:
The belief that one's thoughts, words, or actions will produce an outcome that defies normal laws of cause and effect; the belief that one's words have the power to make things happen. For example, a client may believe his or her thoughts can cause earthquakes. Occurs in schizophrenia.
Major Depression:
A period of at least 2 weeks when you experience the loss of interest or pleasure in doing most things and have at least four of the following: change in appetite, weight, sleep, work; decreased energy; feelings of worthlessness or guilt; difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions; or recurrent thoughts of death or of killing yourself.
Major Depressive Episode:
Depressed mood and/or loss of interest in pleasure in all or almost all activities for a period of at least two weeks.
Malingering:
A conscious simulation of an illness (with no organic pathology present) used to avoid an unpleasant situation or for personal gain.
Managed care:
A way to supervise the delivery of health care services. Managed care may specify which caregivers the insured family can see and may also limit the number of visits and kinds of services that are covered by insurance.
Mandatory Release:
Release from an institution required by statute when an individual has been confined for a period equal to his or her full sentence minus statutory "good time," if any.
Manic episode (Mania):
Period of behavior characterized by predominantly elevated, expansive mood, either euphoric or irritable, with a duration of at least one week. Accompanying behaviors may include increased activity, restlessness, talkativeness, flight of ideas, feeling of racing thoughts, grandiosity, decreased sleep time, short attention span, buying sprees, sexual indiscretion, and inappropriate laughing, joking, or punning.
Manifestation Determination:
This is a decision by the CCC (see Case Conference Committee) about whether a student's misconduct is a manifestation of (caused by) the student's disability, an inappropriate IEP, or the school's failure to implement the IEP as written.
Mediation:
Mediation is a free dispute resolution process available to parents of children with disabilities. If you are in disagreement with the school district, you can ask for mediation. All schools have the forms for mediation. The process works like this. You request mediation by filling out the form and giving it to the school as well as sending it to the state mediation bureau. The state mediation bureau (affectionately called MNSEMS) will then assign a third party to act as a mediator and arrange a date and location for the meeting. At the meeting, the mediator's role is to try and help the parties resolve the issue. The mediator is not a judge or arbitrator and cannot make any decision about the dispute. If the parties resolve their differences, a mediation agreement is written. If the differences involve IEP programming as is often the case, an IEP will need to be written or revised. The parties can have more than one mediation session. The school district must participate in at least one mediation. Parents are encouraged but are not required to participate in mediation. Mediation cannot be used to deny or delay a due process hearing or other rights. Mediation discussions are confidential. Mediation has been tried for several months in the Nordberg case. For more information about mediation, contact MNSEMS at 612-296-2633.
Medicaid:
A joint Federal and State program that pays for health care for low-income people or for people eligible for other reasons.
Mental Health:
How a person thinks, feels, and acts when faced with life's situations. Mental health is how people look at themselves, their lives, and the other people in their lives; evaluate their challenges and problems; and explore choices. This includes handling stress, relating to other people, and making decisions.
Mental Health Problems:
Mental health problems are real. They affect one's thoughts, body, feelings, and behavior. Mental health problems are not just a passing phase. They can be severe, seriously interfere with a person's life, and even cause a person to become disabled.
Mental health problems include depression, bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness), attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and conduct disorder.
Mental Disorders:
Another term used for mental health problems.
Mental Illnesses:
This term is usually used to refer to severe mental health problems in adults. A disease of the brain that causes unusual thoughts and emotions, including depression, feeling like you can do anything and/or not knowing the difference between reality and unreality.
MDCFL:
Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning
1500 Highway 36 West
Roseville, Minnesota 55113-4266
Information: (651) 582-8200
Milieu Therapy:
Treatment by environment. Physical surroundings, equipment, and staff attitude are designed in such a way as to enhance the effectiveness of other therapies and foster the patient's rehabilitation.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Adolescent Version (MMPI-A): A commonly used, complex, lengthy psychological test with 550 questions that yields a clinical picture of the client's personality style.
Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor (MAOI):
Any of a group of antidepressant drugs that inhibit the action of monoamine oxidase in the brain and so allow monoamines to accumulate.
Mood:
A feeling state or prolonged emotion that influences the whole of one's psychic life.
Mood Disorders:
The loss of the sense of control over the continuum of emotional experiences causing feelings of distress. People with elevated mood (mania) can show expansiveness, flight of ideas, decreased sleep, heightened self-esteem, and grandiose ideas. People with depressed mood (depression) can have a loss of energy and interest, feelings of guilt, difficulty concentrating, loss of appetite, and thoughts of death or suicide.
Mood Stabilizers:
Psychotropic medication used to treat bipolar disorder. This medication evens out mood swings in both directions. Lithium and Depakote (valproic acid) are the most commonly used.
Multidisciplinary Treatment Team Approach:
Representatives from the disciplines of psychiatry, education, nursing, psychology, social work, recreational therapy, life skills, nutrition, and occupational therapy meeting regularly to develop, monitor, and evaluate a written, comprehensive, and individualized treatment description.
N
Negative Reinforcement:
Refers to an increase in the frequency of a response by removing an aversive event immediately after the response is performed.
Neuroleptic Drugs:
Sometimes called anti-psychotic or psychotropic drugs. These medicines help with hallucinations, delusions or paranoia.
Nonresidential Program:
Program that provides services to juveniles who live at home and report to the program on a daily basis. Juveniles in such a program require more attention than that provided by probation and aftercare services. Often the program operates its own education program through the local school district.
O
Obsession:
A persistent, repetitive, and unwanted thought. Cannot be eliminated by logic or reasoning.
Operant Behavior:
Behavior that is maintained by its consequences in the environment. That is, depending on what happens after one engages in certain behaviors, one may be more or less likely to engage in similar behavior in the future.
Orientation:
An individual's awareness of self in relation to time, place, and person.
Orthon-Gillingham:
A form of instruction used with children who have dyslexia, Orton-Gillingham is a multi-sensory based form of phonetic instruction that is sequential and systemic in nature.
OSEP:
Office of Special Education Programs.
Outpatient Services:
The services you get when you are not in the hospital. You usually go to a clinic to see your doctor, therapist or case manager.
P
Panic:
In psychiatry, an attack of acute, intense, and overwhelming anxiety accompanied by a considerable degree of personality disorganization.
Panic Disorder:
A stronger form of anxiety that may include sweating, heart racing, dizziness or feeling like one is going to die. This disorder may cause lack of sleep and paranoia to the point that the consumer does not want to go certain places or leave his home at all.
Paranoia:
A belief that the actions of others is demeaning or threatening. It is characterized by feelings of being exploited or harmed by others, and questioning loyalty or trustworthiness of friends or associates.
Partial Hospitalization:
Treatment individuals receive when not inpatients in the hospital that lasts for more than an hour and takes place several days per week. Usually involves groups, one-on-one counseling and education.
Personality Disorder:
A nonpsychotic illness characterized by enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about oneself and the environment in ways that are maladaptive. The individual uses inflexible behavior patterns to fulfill his or her own needs and attain self-satisfaction, often at the expense of others and society in general. Results in significant functional impairment and/or subjective distress.
Pervasive Developmental Delay - Not Otherwise Specified: (PDD - NOS)
Basically a diagnosis of developmental delays that could be on the autism spectrum.
Petition:
Application for court order or other judicial action. In juvenile proceedings, a petition is a document alleging that a youth is delinquent, a status offender, or a dependent child and asking that the court assume jurisdiction over the juvenile.
Phase / Level Program:
Behavior modification program that defines the responsibilities and privileges earned and denotes consequences for each resident. Indicates progress and reflects movement in achieving treatment goals. Movement can be forward or backward.
Phobia:
An obsessive, persistent, unrealistic fear of an external object or situation.
Plan of Care:
A treatment plan especially designed for each child and family, based on individual strengths and needs. The caregiver(s) develop(s) the plan with input from the family.
The plan establishes goals and details appropriate treatment and services to meet the special needs of the child and family.
Polydrug (or Polysubstance) Use / Abuse:
The use or abuse of multiple drugs within the same time frame; includes the use of alcohol.
Positive Reinforcer:
An event that, when presented contingent on some behavior, increases the future likelihood of that behavior.
Positive Reinforcement:
In behavioral therapy, operant conditioning, and learning theory, an environmental event (such as reward or praise) that reinforces or increases the probability of a behavioral response. A technique often used with children and adolescents.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD):
Youth with PTSD have experienced a traumatic event and often have nightmares about the traumatic event or flashbacks where they feel like the event is happening to them again. They tend to avoid anything that reminds them of the traumatic event and may not remember important parts of what happened. They may feel detached from themselves or others and experience a limited range of emotions. Youth with PTSD may also have symptoms of increased arousal such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, irritability/angry outbursts, and problems with concentration. These youth are usually hyperaware of their surroundings and are easily startled.
Procedural Safeguards:
In an educational context, procedural safeguards refers to notice of parental rights.
Probation:
Court-ordered disposition alternative not involving confinement through which an adjudicated delinquent is placed under the control, supervision, and care of a probation field staff member.
Psychodynamic Therapy:
From the perspective of the psychodynamic treatment provider, the behavior that youth exhibit stems from basic psychosexual conflict. Treatment approaches are derived from the notion that youth are struggling with internal issues stemming from unresolved developmental conflicts from their childhood. Treatment is focused on uncovering the unconscious conflict by interpretation of dreams, play therapy, and other forms of indirect approaches, which try to help individuals gain insight into the origins of their conflict. The emphasis is on identifying the feelings that underlie maladaptive behavior. The primary means by which change is thought to occur is through a connected relationship between the therapist and youth.
Psychomotor Agitation:
Agitated motor activity.
Psychomotor Retardation:
A generalized slowing of psychologic and physical activity, frequently occurring as a symptom of severe depression.
Psychopharmacotherapy:
The use of psychoactive drugs in the symptomatic treatment and management of psychiatric disorders.
Psychosis:
A state in which a person's capacity for recognizing reality and communicating and interacting with others is impaired, thereby greatly diminishing the person's ability to deal with life's demands. May be associated with several mental disorders, and includes thought disorders (delusion), sensory perceptual alterations (hallucinations, illusions), and extremes of affect.
Psychotic Disorders:
Youth who are psychotic have an impaired sense of reality. They may have hallucinations: hearing or seeing things that are not really there. They may have delusions: holding on to irrational beliefs even though there is much evidence that the belief is not true. These youth may behave in bizarre ways and often have a difficult time relating to others. Psychosis can result from a variety of causes including schizophrenia, severe mood disorders, or a medical condition. Substance use can also result in psychotic symptoms. Some youth who use LSD report visual hallucinations even after discontinued drug use, and youth who use large amounts of drugs, particularly methamphetamines, can become extremely paranoid and develop delusions that people are after them.
Psychotropic Drugs:
Chemicals that alter feelings, emotions, and consciousness in a variety of ways; used in the practice of psychiatry to treat a wide range of mental and emotional illnesses.
Punishment:
Presentation of an aversive event or removal of a positive event following a response which decreases the frequency of that response.
R
Rapport:
That conscious feeling of harmonious accord, mutual responsiveness, and sympathy that contributes to the patient's confidence in the therapist (or other individual) and willingness to work cooperatively with him or her.
Rationalization:
A defense mechanism in which the individual attempts to justify or make consciously tolerable by plausible means feelings, behavior, and motives that would otherwise be intolerable.
Recidivism:
Repetition of criminal behavior.
Regression:
Retreating to past developmental levels of behavior, generally in an attempt to reduce overwhelming anxiety. May be used as a defense mechanism.
Reinforcer:
Anything that increases the strength of a behavior.
Relapse Prevention:
Strategy to train alcohol and other drug abusers to cope more effectively and to overcome the stressors or triggers in their environments that may cause relapse into drug use and dependency.
Related Services:
In the educational context, related services refers to services that are supplemental to the student's instructional program and are necessary for the student to benefit from special education. They may be of developmental, corrective, or supportive nature.
Remission:
Temporary disappearance of symptoms.
Residential Treatment Centers:
Facilities that provide treatment 24 hours a day and can usually serve more than 12 young people at a time. Children with serious emotional disturbances receive constant supervision and care. Treatment may include individual, group, and family therapy; behavior therapy; special education; recreation therapy; and medical services. Residential treatment is usually more long-term than inpatient hospitalization. Centers are also known as therapeutic group homes.
Respite Care:
A service that provides a break for parents who have a child with a serious emotional disturbance. Trained parents or counselors take care of the child for a brief period of time to give families relief from the strain of caring for the child. This type of care can be provided in the home or in another location. Some parents may need this help every week.
S
Schizophrenia:
A severe emotional disorder of psychotic depth characteristically marked by a retreat from reality with delusion formation, hallucinations, emotional disharmony, and regressive behavior.
Screening:
A brief process designed to identify individuals with an increased risk of having disorders that warrant immediate attention, intervention, or more comprehensive review. Screening is not intended to provide an accurate diagnosis, but to distinguish those individuals who are particularly troubled and may a more comprehensive evaluation in order to identify specific deficits.
Self-Esteem:
Feelings of self-worth stemming from the individual's positive or negative beliefs about being valuable and capable.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
A predetermined idea or expectation one has toward oneself that is acted out, thus "proving" itself.
Self-Mutilation:
Self-injurious behavior committed without the individual intending to die.
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI):
An antidepressant medication that typically decreases anxiety as well as depression (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil).
Serious Emotional Disturbances (SED):
Diagnosable disorders in children and adolescents that severely disrupt their daily functioning in the home, school, or community. Serious emotional disturbances affect one in 10 young people. These disorders include depression, attentiondeficit/ hyperactivity, anxiety disorders, conduct disorder, and eating disorders. These are childhood disorders that affect the child on a daily basis, causing problems with relationships as well as difficulty concentrating and adjusting to change. The illness is generally lasts at least 12 months.
Serious Mental Illness (SMI):
An adult disorder that cannot be cured and causes difficulty with daily living (taking care of themselves), has problems with relationships, difficulty concentrating, and adapting to change. The illness is expected to last at least 12 months. Examples: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.
Service:
A type of support or clinical intervention designed to address the specific mental health needs of a child and his or her family. A service could be provided only one time or repeated over a course of time, as determined by the child, family, and service provider.
Services Provider:
Mental health centers or hospitals that have been approved by the Division of Mental Health and Addiction to provide mental health and/or addiction treatment, as well as mental health centers in the private sector.
Shaping:
Involves reinforcing behavior already in the repertoire of the individual, which approximates the goal. Use of positive reinforcement for successive approximations and operant extinction for other behaviors to establish the new learning.
Shelter Care:
Any nonsecure public or private facility designated to provide either
(1) temporary placement for alleged or adjudicated status offenders prior to the issuance of a disposition order or
(2) longer term care under a juvenile court disposition order.
Social Investigation:
Investigation into the background and character of a delinquent that assists the court in determining the most appropriate disposition.
Social Reinforcer:
Usually approval or positive attention, but not infrequently other kinds of social behavior. A person may continue to bother others as a consequence of attention received as a result of their behavior. Insults and displays of negative emotion are social reinforcers for these people.
Splitting:
Involves dissociating positive and negative aspects of oneself and others, and compartmentalizing them into "all good" or "all bad" images. People who use splitting see themselves and others in black-and-white terms, dividing the world into "good guys" and "bad guys." Term also used when an individual asks one staff person for something, then goes to another staff person if answer is not what he or she wanted.
Status Offender:
A youth who has been charged with or adjudicated for a status offense, which is conduct declared by statute to be a crime for children but which would not be a crime if committed by an adult under the law of the jurisdiction where the offense was committed.
Stay-put:
If the parent and school disagree on a child's program, the child "stays put" in the last program agreed upon while the parties litigate. The purpose of this is to protect the child from being moved around during litigation.
Suicidal Ideation:
Having thoughts of killing oneself.
Suicide Attempt:
Engaging in a life threatening behavior with the intent of ending one's life.
Suspension:
A suspension is the unilateral, temporary removal of a student from the student's current placement by the public agency. A student with a disability may be suspended for up to ten consecutive school days for the same reasons as a student without a disability.
System of Care:
A method of delivering mental health services that helps children and adolescents with mental health problems and their families get the full range of services in or near their homes and communities. These services must be tailored to each individual child's physical, emotional, social, and educational needs. In systems of care, local organization work in teams to provide services.
T
Target Behavior:
Behavior defined explicitly (avoiding general terms) so that it can be observed, measured, and agreed upon by individuals administering the program.
Teacher of Record (TOR):
This term is used to designate the single special education teacher to whom a student with a disability is assigned.
Thought Disorder:
Thinking characterized by loosened associations, neologisms, and illogical constructs.
Includes disturbances in the form, structure, and content of thought.
Time Out:
A nonpunitive, unlocked area, as well as a period of time, which provides an individual with the opportunity to regain control of behavior or attitude.
Training Schools, Camps, and Ranches:
Nonsecure residential programs providing services to youth. Training schools are also known as youth development centers, youth villages, youth treatment centers, youth service centers, or schools or homes for boys or girls. Camps and ranches are generally located in relatively remote or rural areas. Camps have structured programs that emphasize outdoor work, including conservation and related activities. Typically, ranch residents participate in a structured program of education, recreation, and facility maintenance, including responsibility for the physical plant, its equipment, and livestock.
Traumatic Brain Injury:
A category of disability under the Individuals with Disasbilities Education Act (IDEA)
Transference:
In psychoanalytic theory, an unconscious phenomenon in which the client projects onto another person (such as the therapist) attitudes, feelings, and desires originally linked with early significant persons. The individual onto whom the client projects typically represents these figures in the client's current life.
Transition:
In the education context, transition refers from a child's adaptation from school life to adult life. At the age of 14, earlier if the CCC (see Case Conference Committee) determines it appropriate, the CCC must begin to plan for the student's transition. Schools are responsible to provide transition services to assist a child with disabilities to successfully access the adult world, through work experiences and/or through postsecondary options and related. Transition services must be individually tailored to the child's needs and skills.
Tricyclics:
A group of chemically related antidepressants.
U
Unbroken Contact:
Early, thorough, and substantial alcohol and other drug abuse treatment intervention delivered in an unbroken manner throughout the entire juvenile case-handling process, from intake through the sentence. The components of the system must transfer not only the juvenile but also the cumulative record of what the system has learned and what it has done.
U.S.C.:
United States Code. The United States Code is available online at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/
V
Vocational Education:
Vocational education is an organized educational program that is directly related to the preparation of individuals for paid or unpaid employment.
W
WISC test:
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
Withdrawal:
Process of retreating from society and relationships with others. Usually includes lack of interest in social activities and difficulty in communicating with others.
Word Salad:
A mixture of words and phrases that lacks comprehensive meaning or logical coherence.
Wraparound Services:
A comprehensive approach to developing help that meets the mental health needs ofindividual children and their families. Children and families are provided with community support that is coordinated with full treatment services in order to facilitate the effectiveness of the intervention.