The CMHS uniform data reporting system is organized around a common set of data elements, standardization of service names and definitions. The list below summarizes the key definitions.
| Word |
Definition |
| Activity Therapy |
Includes art, dance, music, recreational and occupational therapies, and psychodrama. |
| Access |
Access refers to the degree to which services are quickly and readily available. |
| Addition |
The number of persons admitted, readmitted, or transferred to a specified service during the reporting period. |
| American Indian or Alaska Native |
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliations or community attachment. |
| Appropriateness |
Appropriate services are those that are individualized to address a client's strengths and weaknesses, cultural context, service preferences, and recovery goals. |
| Asian |
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. |
| Assertive Community Treatment |
A multi-disciplinary clinical team approach of providing 24-hour, intensive community services in the individual's natural setting that help individuals with serious mental illness live in the community. |
| Average Length of Stay |
This represents the average time a client receives a specified service during a specified time period. This is generally computed by counting all the days that clients received the service during the time period and dividing by the number of clients that received the service during the same period. (Days a person was on furlough or not receiving are not counted.) |
| Behavioral Therapy |
Services provided based on the principles of learning theory and reinforcement paradigms. Includes behavior modification, relaxation training, aversive conditioning and biofeedback. |
| Black or African American |
A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. Terms such as "Haitian" or "Negro" can be used in addition to "Black or African American." |
| Case Management Services |
Includes activities for the purpose of locating services other than services provided by your organization, linking the client/patient with these services, monitoring the client's/patient's receipt of these services on behalf of the patient/client. Case Management can be provided by an individual or a team; may include both face-to-face and telephone contact with the client/patient as well as contact with other service providers. |
| Collateral Services |
Services that include contacts with significant others involved in the client's/patient's life for the purpose of discussing the client's/patient's emotional or behavioral problems or the collateral's relationship with the client/patient. |
| Community Services |
Services that are provided in a community setting. Community services refer to all services not provided in an inpatient setting. |
| Consumer Run Services |
Mental health treatment or support services that are provided by current or former mental health consumers. Includes social clubs, peer-support groups, and other peer-organized or consumer-run activities. |
| Diagnostic Evaluation |
The aims of a general psychiatric evaluation are 1) to establish a psychiatric diagnosis, 2) to collect data sufficient to permit a case formulation, and 3) to develop an initial treatment plan, with particular consideration of any immediate interventions that may be needed to ensure the patient's safety, or, if the evaluation is a reassessment of a patient in long-term treatment, to revise the plan of treatment in accord with new perspectives gained from the evaluation. |
| Discharge |
A discharge is the formal termination of service, generally when treatment has been completed or through administrative authority. |
| Drop-in Center |
A social club offering peer support and flexible schedule of activities: may operate on evenings and/ weekends. |
| Dually Diagnosed |
A person who has both an alcohol or drug problem and an emotional/psychiatric problem is said to have a dual diagnosis. |
| Education Services |
Locating or providing a full range of educational services from basic literacy through the General Equivalency Diploma and college courses. Includes special education at the pre-primary, primary, secondary, and adult levels. |
| Electro-convulsive Therapy |
A form of somatic treatment in which electrical current is applied to the brain through electrodes. |
| Emergency |
A planned program to provide psychiatric care in emergency situations with staff specifically assigned for this purpose. Includes crisis intervention, which enables the individual, family members and friends to cope with the emergency while maintaining the individual's status as a functioning community member to the greatest extent possible. |
| Employed |
This is a broad category of employment that includes competitive, supported, and sheltered employment. |
| Employment/Vocational Rehabilitation Services |
A broad range of services designed to address skills necessary for participation in job-related activities. |
| Family-like arrangements |
A broad range of living arrangements that simulate a family situation. This includes foster care and small group homes. |
| Family/Couple Therapy |
Planned therapeutic sessions involving the client/patient and other family members. |
| Foster Care |
Provision of a living arrangement in a household other than that of the client's/patient's family. |
| General Hospital |
A hospital that provides mental health services in at least one separate psychiatric unit with specially allocated staff and space for the treatment of persons with mental illness. |
| General Support |
Includes transportation, childcare, homemaker services, day care, and other general services for clients/patients. |
| Group Therapy |
Planned therapeutic sessions involving group dynamics or interaction among a number of clients/patients. |
| Hispanic or Latino |
A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. The term, "Spanish origin," can be used in addition to "Hispanic or Latino." |
| Homeless |
A person who lives on the street or in a shelter for the homeless. |
| Housing Services |
Assistance to clients/patients in finding and maintaining appropriate housing arrangements. |
| In Home Family Services |
Mental health treatment and support services offered to children and adolescents with mental illness and to their family members in their own homes or apartments. |
| Individual Therapy |
Therapy tailored for a patient/client that is administered one-on-one. |
| Information and Referral Services |
Information services are those designed to impart information on the availability of clinical resources and how to access them. Referral services are those that direct, guide, or link a client/patient with appropriate services provided outside of your organization. |
| Intake/ Screening |
Services designed to briefly assess the type and degree of a client's/patient's mental health condition to determine whether services are needed and to link him/her to the most appropriate and available service. Services may include interviews, psychological testing, physical examinations including speech/hearing, and laboratory studies. |
| Intensive case management |
Targeted case management services for adults with serious mental illnesses or children with serious emotional disturbances. Intensive case managers have much lower caseload sizes and higher levels of professional training than traditional case managers. |
| Intensive Residential Services |
Intensively staffed housing arrangements for clients/patients. May include medical, psychosocial, vocational, recreational or other support services. |
| Legal Advocacy |
Legal services provided to ensure the protection and maintenance of a client's/patient's rights. |
| Living Independently |
A client who lives in a private residence and requires no assistance in activities of daily living. |
| Medicaid client |
Mental health clients to whom some services were reimbursable through Medicaid. |
| Medication Therapy |
Prescription, administration, assessment of drug effectiveness, and monitoring of potential side effects of psycho-tropic medications. |
| MHA Administration |
Activities related to the planning, organization, management, funding, and oversight of direct services. |
| MHA Data collection/reporting |
These are activities to obtain, analyze, and report data for planning, management or evaluation purposes. |
| MHA Other Activities |
Other specific non-direct service activities of State MHAs that further the provision of mental health services in the State. |
| MHA Planning Council Activities |
All activities that comply with the mandate of State MHAs to form and operate a planning council to support the development of a strategic plan for mental health services and assess ongoing operations. |
| MHA Technical Assistance |
Provision or sponsorship of training, education, or technical support in the planning, operation or management of public mental health programs in the State. |
| MI and MR/DD services |
Services designed to address the needs of people with both psychiatric illness and mental retardation or developmental disabilities. |
| Mobile Treatment Team |
Provides assertive outreach, crisis intervention, and independent-living assistance with linkage to necessary support services in the client's/patient's own environment. This includes PACT, CTTP, or other continuous treatment team programs. |
| More Than One Race |
A category of racial grouping for a person who reports multiple racial origins. |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander |
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands. |
| New Generation Medications |
Anti-psychotic medications which are new and atypical. |
| Non-Institutional Services |
A facility that provides mental health services, but not on a residential basis, other than an inpatient facility or nursing home. |
| Non-Medicaid Services |
Services other than those funded by Medicaid. |
| Nursing Home |
An establishment that provides living quarters and care for the elderly and the chronically ill. This includes assisted living outside a nursing home. |
| Outcomes |
Outcomes are reflected by the extent to which services provided to individuals with emotional and behavioral disorders have a positive or negative effect on their well-being, life circumstances, and capacity for self-management and recovery. |
| Psychiatric Emergency Walk-in |
A planned program to provide psychiatric care in emergency situations with staff specifically assigned for this purpose. Includes crisis intervention, which enables the individual, family members and friends to cope with the emergency while maintaining the individual's status as a functioning community member to the greatest extent possible and is open for a patient to walk-in. |
| Psychosocial Rehabilitation |
Therapeutic activities or interventions provided individually or in groups that may include development and maintenance of daily and community-living skills, self-care, skills training includes grooming, bodily care, feeding, social skills training, and development of basic language skills. |
| Residential Services |
Services provided over a 24-hour period or any portion of the day which a patient resided, on an on-going basis, in a State facility or other facility and received treatment. |
| Respite Residential Services |
Provision of periodic relief to the usual family members and friends who care for the clients/patients. |
| Retired |
Clients who are of legal age, stopped working and have withdrawn from one's occupation. |
| School attendance |
Physical presence of a child in a school setting during scheduled class hours. "Regular" school attendance is attendance at least 75% of scheduled hours. |
| School Based Services |
School-based treatment and support interventions designed to identify emotional disturbances and/or assist parents, teachers, and counselors in developing comprehensive strategies for addressing these disturbances. School-based services also include counseling or other school-based programs for emotionally disturbed children, adolescents, and their families within the school, home and community environment. |
| Serious Emotional Disturbance |
Pursuant to section 1912(c) of the Public Health Service Act "children with a serious emotional disturbance" are persons: (1) from birth up to age 18 and (2) who currently have, or at any time during the last year, had a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria specified within DSM-III-R. Federal Register Volume 58 No. 96 published Thursday May 20, 1993 pages 29422 through 29425. |
| Serious Mental Illness |
Pursuant to section 1912(c) of the Public Health Service Act, adults with serious mental illness SMI are persons: (1) age 18 and over and (2) who currently have, or at any time during the past year had a diagnosable mental behavioral or emotional disorder of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria specified within DSM-IV or their ICD-9-CM equivalent (and subsequent revisions) with the exception of DSM-IV "V" codes, substance use disorders, and developmental disorders, which are excluded, unless they co-occur with another diagnosable serious mental illness. (3) That has resulted in functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. Federal Register Volume 58 No. 96 published Thursday May 20, 1993 pages 29422 through 29425. |
| State Coverage |
The total unduplicated count of mental health patients/clients served through State programs, exclusive of Medicaid and Other Coverage. |
| State Hospital |
A publicly funded inpatient facility for persons with mental illness. |
| Substance Abuse |
Misuse of medications, alcohol or other illegal substances. |
| Supported Employment |
Supportive services that include assisting individuals in finding work; assessing individuals' skills, attitudes, behaviors, and interest relevant to work; providing vocational rehabilitation and/or other training; and providing work opportunities. Includes transitional and supported employment services. |
| Supported Housing |
Services to assist individuals in finding and maintaining appropriate housing arrangements. |
| Supportive Residential Services |
Moderately staffed housing arrangements for clients/patients. Includes supervised apartments, satellite facilities, group homes, halfway houses, mental health shelter-care facilities, and other facilities. |
| Telephone Hotline |
A dedicated telephone line that is advertised and may be operated as a crisis hotline for emergency counseling, or as a referral resource for callers with mental health problems. |
| Therapeutic Foster Care |
A service which provides treatment for troubled children within private homes of trained families. The approach combines the normalizing influence of family-based care with specialized treatment interventions, thereby creating a therapeutic environment in the context of a nurturant family home. |
| Unable to Work |
Persons who have a mental or physical condition that does not allow the patients/clients to function in a work environment. |
| Unduplicated Counts |
Counting a client/patient and their services uniquely. Unduplicated counts can exist at different levels: a program, a local system of care, or at the State level. |
| Unemployed |
Not currently employed. This could include people looking for work, or people engaged in other activities such as homemakers, students or volunteers. |
| Unmet Needs |
Identified treatment needs of the people that are not being met as well as those receiving treatment that is inappropriate or not optimal. |
| Vocational Rehabilitation Services |
Services that include job finding/development, assessment and enhancement of work-related skills, attitudes, and behaviors as well as provision of job experience to clients/patients. Includes transitional employment. |
| White |
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. |
| Wraparound Services |
A unique set of community services and natural supports for a child/adolescent with serious emotional disturbances based on a definable planning process, individualized for the child and family to achieve a positive set of outcomes. |
