Collaboration: Various agencies who work together to provide a unified system for services for an individual and their family.

Continuum of Care: A term that implies a progression of services that a child would move through, probably one at a time. The more up to date idea is one of comprehensive services.

Coordinated Services: Child-serving organizations, along with the family, talk with each other 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.

Cultural Competence: help that is sensitive and responsive to cultural differences. Caregivers are aware of the impact of their own culture and possess skills that help them provide services that are culturally appropriate in responding to people’s unique differences, such as race and ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation or physical disability.

DSM-IV: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is an official manual of mental health problems developed by the American Psychiatric Association.

Emotional Disturbance: Diagnosable disorders in children and adolescents that disrupt daily functioning.

Empowerment: The ability to exercise influence and control over the services one or one’s child receives or is provided.

Family-Centered Services: Help designed for the specific needs of each individual child and his or her family.

Family Services Collaborative: Public and non-profit agencies along with parent representation work together to design implement and evaluate services for children with disabilities from birth to age 21 and their families.

Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health: A parent-run organization focused on the needs of the children and youth with emotional, behavioral or mental disorders and their families.

Fiscal year: The budgetary year. The state’s fiscal year goes from July 1 through the following June 30.

Mental Health: Refers to how a person thinks, feels and acts when faced with situations.

Mental Health Collaborative: Public and non-profit agencies along with parent representation that work together to design, implement and evaluate services for children—from birth to age 21—with mental health disorders.

Mental Health Problems: Refers to the mental health problems that may seriously interfere with a person’s life.

Mental Health Targeted Case Management: These services assist recipients to gain access to needed medical, social and financial services. Service is available to recipients who are determined to have either a serious or persistent mental illness or children with severe emotional disturbance.

Mental Disorders: Another term used for mental health problems.

Mental Illness: This term usually refers to severe mental health problems in adults.

Ombudsman: The ombudsman is an independent governmental official who investigates complaints regarding services to individuals with mental retardation or mental illness to determine whether the complaints are justified and recommends solutions.

Serious Emotional Disturbance: Diagnosable disorders in children and adolescents that severely disrupt daily functioning in the home, school or community.

Systems 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 communities and homes. These services must be tailored to each individual child’s physical, emotional, social and educational needs. In systems of care, local organizations work in teams to provide these services.

Systems Change: Modifying the way policy and procedures are made or services delivered across multiple programs or agencies.

Targeted Case Management: Targeted case management are services that assist medical assistance-eligible persons to gain access to needed medical, social, educational and other services.

TEFRA: (Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act) This act amended the Medicaid law to give states the option to waive the deeming of parental income and resources for children under 18 years of age who are living at home but would otherwise be eligible for Medicaid funded institutional care.

Wraparound Services: A “full service” approach to developing help that meets the mental health needs of individual children and their families.