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Glossary

The following are definitions and descriptions of words and acronyms that may be used in this website. They have been taken from a variety of sources, particularly the glossary contained in Te KÅkiri: The Mental Health and Addiction Action Plan 2006-2015¹, and are not meant to be definitive.

Further discussion, enquiry and reading are strongly recommended.

A B C D E F G H I J,K,L M N O P Q,R S T U,V,W

A
ACC	Accident Compensation Corporation.
Access	A person's ability to obtain a service when they need it and within the appropriate time.
Addiction	In the context of this website, addiction relates only to alcohol and other drug use and/or problem gambling. It refers to a maladaptive pattern of substance use, or problem gambling leading to clinically significant impairment or distress.
Adult	Aged 18 years or over.
ALAC	Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand.
AoD	Alcohol and other drugs.
Area of deprivation	NZDep2001 is an area-based index of socioeconomic deprivation, which ranks small areas from the least deprived (decile 1) to the most deprived (decile 10).
Assessment	A service provider's systematic and ongoing collection of information about a consumer to form an understanding of service user needs. A clinical assessment forms the basis for developing a diagnosis and an individualised treatment and support plan with the service user, their family, whanau and significant others.

B
Bangkok Charter	Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion 2005.
Blueprint (for Mental Health Services)	The 1998 Mental Health Commission document Blueprint for Mental Health Services in New Zealand: How Things Need to Be. The Blueprint is a national mental health and addiction service development plan that includes detailed resourcing guidelines for service delivery.
Brief intervention	A brief intervention is a one-on-one intervention in a non-specialist setting. It is typically one or two short motivational interview sessions with a client.

C
Capability	An individual, organisation or sector having the right skills, knowledge and attitudes to deliver high-quality and effective mental health and addiction services.
Capacity	An organisation or sector having sufficient appropriately trained staff and resources to deliver a high-quality and effective mental health and addiction service.
Children and young people	People aged 0-19 years, inclusive.
CLIC	Client Information Collection (Problem Gambling).
Cognitive behavioural therapies (CBT)	Structured psychological interventions in which the person works collaboratively with a therapist to identify the types and effects of thoughts, beliefs and interpretations on current problem areas; develops skills to identify, monitor and then counteract problematic thoughts, beliefs and interpretations related to the target symptoms/problems; and learns a repertoire of appropriate coping skills.
Community	The people living in a particular area or people who are considered as a unit because of a common nationality, culture, occupation, belief, interest or experience.
Competency	A competency is a measurable human capability required for effective performance. It describes what a person knows and is able to do in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Consumer	A person who experiences or has experienced mental illness and who uses or has used mental health services. Other terms often used are service user, tangata whaiora and tangata motuhake.
Co-morbidity	Two or more diseases or conditions occurring simultaneously.
Culture	Culture is the shared attitudes, beliefs, values, experiences and/or practices of groups in society.
CYF	Child, Youth and Family is the government agency that has legal powers to intervene to protect and help children who are being abused or neglected or who have problem behaviour. CYF sits within the Ministry of Social Development.

D
DAP	District annual plan. Each DHB is required to complete a DAP and make it publically available.
DHB	District health board. Established under the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000.
DHBNZ	District Health Boards of New Zealand.
DSM	Commonly known as DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists different categories of mental disorders and the criteria for diagnosing them.

E
Empowerment	A sense of one's own value and strength, and a capacity to handle life's issues.
Evidence-based practice	An approach to decision-making in which the clinician uses the best evidence available, in consultation with the service user, to decide on a course of action that suits the person best.

F
Family	Relatives, whanau, partners, friends or others nominated by the person.

G
GP	General practitioner.

H
Hauora	Health and wellbeing. In traditional korero, hauora was the breath or spirit of life that gave shape and form.
Health outcome	A change in an individual's or group's health that is attributable to one or more interventions.
Health promotion	The process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health. It involves the population as a whole in the context of their everyday lives, rather than focusing on people at risk for specific diseases, and is directed toward action on the determinants of health.
Hinengaro	This is often viewed as the psychological or mental dimension. In traditional korero, hinengaro is the deep mind or consciousness.
Hua Oranga	Maori Outcome Measurement Tool (PDF)

I
IACD	Interagency Committee on Drugs.
Integrated approach	An integrated approach addresses the continuum of need and encompasses public health approaches and intervention services.

J, K, L
LTCCP	Long Term Council Community Plan. The Local Government Act 2002 requires a local authority to have a long-term council community plan (LTCCP) in effect at all times.

M
Mental health	A state of wellbeing in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her own community².
Mental health promotion	The process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. Mental health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector.
Mental health sector	The organisations and individuals involved in mental health to any degree and at any level.
Mental health service provider	An organisation providing assessment, treatment or support to those with mental health and/or addiction issues.
Mental illness	Any clinically significant behavioural psychological syndrome characterised by the presence of distressing symptoms or significant impairment of functioning.
MHC	Mental Health Commission.
MHINC	Mental Health Information National Collection - the national health database.
MHRDS	Mental Health Research and Development Strategy
MH-SMART	Mental Health Standard Measures of Assessment and Recovery, established to assist DHBs in outcome collection processes.
MOE	Ministry of Education.
MSD	Ministry of Social Development.

N
NAOTP	National Association of Opioid Treatment Providers.
NCAT	National Committee for Addiction Treatment.
NGO	Non-government organisation.
NSF	Nationwide Service Framework. A collection of guidelines and requirements to ensure that New Zealand public health services are provided to an agreed level of nationwide consistency.

O
Older adult	Aged 60-65 years or over.
Ottawa Charter	Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion 1986.
Outcome	A measurable change in the health of an individual, or a group of people or population, which is attributable to interventions or services.

P
Pacific peoples	A diverse group of people from the Pacific region, including Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, Cook Island, Tokelauan and Niuean peoples.
PHO	Primary health organisation.
Prevention	Intervention that is designed to prevent mental health disorders or problems. Prevention interventions may be: universal – targeted to the whole population (for example healthy cities) selective – targeted to individuals or groups at increased risk (postnatal home visits for new mothers is an example) indicated – targeted to individuals with early symptoms (such as grief therapy for individuals experiencing the loss of a close relative, partner or friend).
Primary health care	Essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound, culturally appropriate and socially acceptable methods. It is universally accessible to people in their communities, involves community participation, is integral to and a central function of the country’s health system, and is the first level of contact with the health system.
Problem gambling	Patterns of gambling behaviour that compromise, disrupt or damage health, personal, family or vocational pursuits. In its most extreme form it is often described as pathological gambling.
Professional associations	For the purposes of this website these include all professional associations representing, and/or responsible for the registration of the health workforce, including unions.

Q, R
Rangatahi	Often used to refer to young Maori. The word ‘rangatahi' literally means ‘fishing net' and was used as a metaphor to describe young people in a famous whakatauki (proverb).
Recovery	Living well in the presence or absence of mental illness and the losses that can be associated with it. The addiction sector have a similar yet different view of recovery, one that includes both abstinence and harm minimisation perspectives that have evolved over time, allowing individuals a choice to adopt the approach that best represents their worldview. There is a long and generally held view that in the addiction field recovery involves an expectation/hope that people can and will recover from their addiction/unwellness, acceptance that recovery is a process not a state of being, and recognition that the recovery is done by the person addicted/affected, in partnership with the services (in the word’s widest sense) providing help. A challenge faced by both the mental health and addiction sectors is the ongoing development of the concept and language of recovery.
Resilience	Resilience is the individual’s capacity to cope with and adapt to adversity.

S
Screening	Screening involves asking a person questions from a formal questionnaire. Many screening tools are developed in a way that individuals can read and answer them on their own.
Self-management	Engagement in activities that protect and promote health, monitoring and management of the symptoms and signs of illness, management of the impact of illness on functioning, emotions and interpersonal relationships and adherence to treatment regimes.
Service user	A person who uses mental health services. This term is often used interchangeably with consumer and/or tangata whaiora.
SPARC	Sport and Recreation New Zealand.
Specialist services	For the purposes of this website specialist services refers to all those mental health and addiction services described in the Nationwide Services Framework and funded through the ringfenced mental health funding stream. This includes NGOs.
Stepped care model	A stepped care model is a sequence of treatment options to offer simpler interventions first and more complex interventions if the patient has not benefited.

T
Talking therapies	Talking therapies is a broad term covering a range of therapeutic approaches, all of which involve talking, questioning and listening in order to understand, educate and assist with people’s problems.
Tamariki	Young child/children
Tangata whaiora (plural TÄngata whaiora)	People seeking wellness; mental health service users.
TLA	Territorial Local Authority

U, V, W
Whanau	Often defined as family and birth, the use of the term whanau in this website is not limited to traditional definitions, but recognises the wide diversity of families represented within Maori communities. It is up to each whanau and each individual to define for themselves who their whanau is.
Whanau ora	Healthy Maori families that achieve maximum strength and wellbeing, both individually and collectively.
WHO	World Health Organization.