Glossary

Discrimination (mental health)	Treating someone differently from how we treat others because of their mental health problem, whether consciously or subconsciously.
Intersectional	The interconnected nature of social categorisations such as ethnicity, class and gender.
Person-centred	Puts people at the centre of a service so it’s designed and tailored around them. Their feelings, ambitions and motivations are at the heart of what’s delivered.
Poverty	The research used the definition of poverty provided by The Joseph Rowntree Foundation. “Poverty means not being able to heat your home, pay your rent, or buy the essentials for your children. It means waking up every day facing insecurity, uncertainty, and impossible decisions about money. It means facing marginalisation – and even discrimination – because of your financial circumstances. The constant stress it causes can lead to problems that deprive people of the chance to play a full part in society.”
Resilience	A person’s capacity to adapt in the face of challenging circumstances, while maintaining a stable mental wellbeing.

Glossary

Scarcity mindset	This is where financial difficulty reduces our ‘mental bandwidth’ and distorts our ability to make decisions. For many, it is difficult to conceive what mental health support might look like when pressing ‘basic’ needs (eg food, heating and shelter) are not met or are at risk. Longer term support for both mental health and financial difficulties feel like a longer term luxury that can be hard or impossible to entertain in the present moment. (Source: Mullainathan, S & Shafir, E, 2013 "Scarcity: Why having too little means so much. Macmillan.)
Stigma	Stigma is when we make assumptions about how a mental health problem affects someone’s behaviour. This makes it more likely that the person will be labelled as different, dangerous or strange. Feelings associated with stigma include: isolation, shame, feeling misunderstood, feeling criticised as a person, demeaned.
Trauma	Going through very stressful, frightening or distressing events is sometimes called trauma. When we talk about emotional or psychological trauma, we might mean: situations or events we find traumatic and how we’re affected by our experiences. Our website has a more detailed explanation of 'trauma.
Trauma informed care	Trauma informed care broadly refers to a set of principles that guide and direct how we view the impact of severe harm on young people’s mental, physical, and emotional health. Trauma informed care encourages support and treatment to the whole person, rather than focusing on only treating individual symptoms or specific behaviours. Rather than using discipline, a school that uses a trauma informed approach might offer therapy, or counselling to support the restoration of that student’s wellbeing.