Glossary of Terms Commonly Used in Mental Health
This glossary provides definitions of many commonly used mental health terms and includes links to more information on many of the entries. Just choose a letter from the menu below to reach the page with the term you'd like to find.
U
Underwriting
The review of prospective or renewing cases to determine their risk and their potential costs.
Unduplicated Counts
Counting a client/patient and their services uniquely. Unduplicated counts can exist at different levels: a program, a local system of care, or at the State level.
Unemployed
Not currently employed. This could include people looking for work, or people engaged in other activities such as homemakers, students or volunteers.
Unmet Needs
Identified treatment needs of the people that are not being met as well as those receiving treatment that is inappropriate or not optimal.
Utilization
The level of use of a particular service over time.
Utilization Management (UM)
A system of procedures designed to ensure that the services provided to a specific client at a given time are cost-effective, appropriate, and least restrictive.
Utilization review
Retrospective analysis of the patterns of service usage in order to determine means for optimizing the value of services provided (minimize cost and maximize effectiveness/appropriateness).
Utilization risk
The risk that actual service utilization might differ from utilization projections.
This glossary incorporates many of the entries provided in a mental health dictionary supplied by the US government's Department of Health and Human Services.
This page was last reviewed by , Monday, 21 July 2008.
The URL of this page is:
http://counsellingresource.com/types/glossary/u.html
