Here are some words you may run into. Understanding the words officers, first-responders, or psychiatrists use will be helpful in the long run.
Anosognosia: a neurological condition that impairs awareness of mental illness. Present in 40-60% of persons with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, it often leads to a refusal to accept treatment.
Assertive community treatment (ACT): a team approach to providing rehabilitation and support to individuals who require intensive services in order to live in the community; also known as PACT
Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT): a process whereby a judge orders a qualifying person with symptoms of mental illness to adhere to a mental health treatment plan while living in the community. Forty-seven states have laws authorizing some form of AOT, which operates under a number of different terms (“involuntary outpatient commitment,” “mandated outpatient treatment” and others).
Civil commitment: a legal process through which an individual with severe mental illness is court-ordered into treatment in a hospital (inpatient) or in the community (see AOT above)
Conditional release: discharge from inpatient psychiatric commitment conditioned upon receiving continued treatment as an outpatient living in the community
Crisis intervention training (CIT): a specialized law enforcement unit comprised of officers who have received training in how to interact with individuals experiencing a psychiatric crisis
Dangerousness (“danger to self/others”): grounds for civil commitment in all states. Many states provide additional, alternative grounds for civil commitment, e.g., “gravely disabled.”
Emergency hospitalization: temporary confinement in a treatment facility during which the person in psychiatric crisis is evaluated by mental health professionals to determine whether civil commitment is appropriate or necessary; may be called an emergency “hold, “pickup” or “detention”
Guardian/conservator: a person appointed by a court to exercise some or all of the legal rights of an incapacitated person
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act): a federal law that includes standards to protect certain types of personal health care information by restricting access by third parties
Interdisciplinary team (IDT): a team approach in a clinical setting; typically consists of a psychiatrist, a case manager, a nurse and a peer specialist (an individual whose mental illness is stable)
Medication over objection: the process of involuntarily administering medication to a person undergoing court-ordered hospitalization who objects to or refuses medications; requires an additional court order in many states
Psychiatric advance directive: a document in which an adult states in advance the wish for psychiatric care in the event that he or she becomes ill and loses capacity for decision-making
Serious/severe mental illness: an umbrella term without a universal definition; most commonly applied to disabling psychiatric diseases with psychotic features (e.g., schizophrenia, severe bipolar disorder)