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State Government of Victoria, Australia, Department of Health: Victorian Mental Health ServicesĀ
2015 factsheet: A Guide To Mental Health Terminology
This guide aims to provide a quick reference for anybody seeking to understand terms commonly used by mental health services.
A symptom most often seen in schizophrenia and other psychoses. It describes a disturbance in a person's thought patterns and is usually shown in abnormal speech. For example, a person may jump from topic to topic in conversation, their answers may be quite unrelated to a question or they may use strikingly unusual words or phrases.
The use of professional knowledge and skill to bring about an improvement in a person's mental illness or to lessen the ill effects of a mental illness, and the distress end suffering that may accompany it.
A severe mental illness experienced by an individual where the symptoms have not responded satisfactorily to current forms of treatment.