Expert answers from

Terms beginning with F G H and I

Family therapy or family intervention

Family therapy – or family intervention – is about helping family members and close friends understand the difficulties that their relative who has psychosis may be experiencing, and helping relatives and members of the extended family deal with some of the problems that can result from living with or supporting someone with psychosis. It can also help the recovery of the person with psychosis, and can help them to stay well for longer. Research has consistently shown that people with schizophrenia who have family therapy with their relatives have fewer relapses, and are less likely to return to hospital. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends family therapy for psychosis be offered to people with schizophrenia and to people with bipolar disorder.

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Forensic mental health services

Forensic mental health services are specialist services for people with mental health problems who have been arrested, who are on remand, or who have been to court and found guilty of a crime. These services are an alternative to prison for people who have mental health problems and offer specialist treatment and care.

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Formal patient

People can be admitted to hospital and treated without their consent under the Mental Health Act. People who are compulsorily admitted to hospital are called ‘formal patients’. People who go to hospital voluntarily when they are unwell are called ‘informal patients.’

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Foundation trust

The majority of specialist mental health services are run by NHS trusts. Many NHS trusts are already ‘foundation trusts’. Foundation trust status gives the NHS organisation a little more power over how it runs its services and how it spends its budget. Local people and local organisations can become 'members' of foundation trusts in order to have a say in how they are managed. The government has decided that all NHS trusts should become foundation trusts.

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Guardianship

Under the Mental Health Act 1983, people living in England and Wales who have a ‘mental disorder’ can be given a ‘guardian’ to help them live in the community, if two doctors think it is in their best interests to have one, or to protect other people. A guardian may be a social services authority, or an individual who is approved by a social services authority. An individual is called a ‘private guardian’. Guardianship lasts for up to six months at first and may be renewed for a further six months, and again for a further year at a time. A guardian has legal powers, which include telling someone where they must live, and telling someone to attend appointments for treatment. However, treatment cannot be given without the person’s consent.

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Health and Care Professions Council

The Health and Care Professions Council sets standards of professional training and conduct for 15 health professions – including psychologist, occupational therapists and arts therapists – and social workers in England. Professionals must register with the Health and Care Professions Council in order to practice.

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HealthWatch (Local HealthWatch and HealthWatch England)

'Local HealthWatch' are new groups set up by local authorities to represent the views of people who use health and social care services. There is a parent ‘consumer champion’ called HealthWatch England that was launched on 1 October 2012 and is part of the Care Quality Commission. The HealthWatch organisations have been created by the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

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Health and well-being boards

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 has created various new organisations and structures. These include ‘health and well-being boards’, made up of representatives from new clinical commissioning groups (responsible for planning and purchasing health services in different areas) and local authorities. The role of health and well-being boards is to help plan local health and social care services.

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Home treatment team (also known as crisis resolution team)

These teams of mental health professionals work with people who have a serious mental illness when they are very unwell – when they are experiencing an episode of psychosis, or have tried to take their own life, for example. In the past, people who are in crisis would usually have been admitted to hospital for treatment. Home treatment teams aim to keep people out of hospital by offering them intensive support in their own homes.

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Hospital Managers

This is a term used in the Mental Health Act 1983. 'Hospital Managers' refers to the organisation that is in charge of a hospital.

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IAPT

IAPT stands for 'Improving Access to Psychological Therapies'. IAPT was launched by the government to give people easy access to talking therapies like cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). Local IAPT services are run by either NHS or voluntary sector organisations. So far, IAPT has concentrated on training therapists to offer CBT to adults who have depression or anxiety. Now IAPT services are being developed for children and young people, and for people who have a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia. This means CBT for psychosis may become more widely available by 2015 through new IAPT services. 

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Intervention

An ‘intervention’ describes any treatment or package of support that is given to someone who is unwell. An intervention could be a drug, a talking therapy, or an hour spent with a volunteer, for example. Sometimes, interventions are designed for health professionals: training to tackle stigma or help make services more recovery-orientated, for example, may be described as an ‘intervention’.

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Independent Complaints Advocacy Service

This is a free, confidential and independent service that can help people make a formal complaint about NHS services.
Find out details of your local ICAS by searching on the internet.

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Independent Mental Capacity Advocates

An Independent Mental Capacity Advocate can be appointed to help a vulnerable person when decisions are being made about serious medical treatment and they 'lack capacity' to make a decision for themselves. Independent Mental Capacity Advocates are mostly employed by voluntary organisations commissioned by social services departments of local authorities to provide this service.

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Independent Mental Health Advocates

Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHAs) help people detained under the Mental Health Act in England to understand their rights and proposed treatment. People who are subject to guardianship and who are on supervised community treatment are also entitled to have the support of an IMHA. From April 2013, local authorities have a legal duty to provide an IMHA service (NHS primary care trusts were previously responsible for organising this service).

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Individual Placement and Support

Individual Placement and Support is a way of helping someone with a mental health problem secure employment, and then supporting them while they are at work, for as long as they need. Employment specialists (sometimes called job coaches, vocational specialists or employment consultants) will help someone get a job – they may coach them for an interview, for example – and then support both the individual and the employer for as long as is necessary. They meet people regularly or offer advice on the phone, and family members and friends might become part of a team that supports people in their working lives.

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Informal patients

People who go to hospital voluntarily when they are unwell are called ‘informal patients.’ People can also be admitted to hospital and treated without their consent under the Mental Health Act. People who are compulsorily admitted to hospital are called ‘formal patients’.

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Integrated services

Services that are run jointly by an NHS organisation and a local authority are called 'integrated services'. Community-based mental health teams, for example, may include mental health professionals employed by an NHS trust and social workers employed by a local authority's social services department.