JARGON BUSTER 'E'

EAR CANDLING/HOPI EAR CANDLING - Ear candling is an alternative therapy to help clear the ear canal of earwax and debris. It is a traditional Native American Practise stemming from the Hopi Tribe it involves placing a lit, hollow candle in the ear canal to create a low-level vacuum. The candle is typically made of cotton or linen, soaked in beeswax and is about 10 inches long. During the process, the individual lies on their side with the candle inserted into the ear, and the other end is lit.

EARLY ACTION - An alternative term to ‘prevention’, also referred to as ‘earlier action and support (EAAS)’. The term is designed to shift thinking and behaviours from ‘preventing problems from arising’ and, often, ‘preventing cost’, to focus instead on positive and proactive action to promote and enable good lives for people and to remove the barriers that get in the way.

EARLY INTERVENTION - Actions that aim to slow down or reduce people’s needs for care and support, or prevent other needs from developing. Early intervention includes things like falls prevention clinics, adaptations to people’s houses to make them easier to get around, or support for carers.

EARLY INTERVENTION IN PSYCHOSIS - Multidisciplinary NHS teams that work to reduce treatment delays for people experiencing psychosis. Access to EIP following a first episode of psychosis has a significant long-term impact for people with psychosis.

EBE – See EXPERT BY EXPERIENCE

ECOTHERAPY - Ecotherapy (also known as nature therapy or green therapy) involves intentional therapeutic interventions and activities in nature led by licensed psychotherapists. The American Psychological Association describes it as the integration of outdoor activities into mental health counselling. It’s about connecting people with the outdoors, often incorporating mindfulness, in order to promote healing and mental health.

ECT – ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY

EDUCATION, HEALTH AND CARE PLAN - Is a legal document that outlines the educational, health, and social care needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities

EDUCATION WELFARE OFFICER - An Educational Welfare Officer, known as an EWO, is a local government official who is saddled with the role of making sure all children within the age of getting formal education are sufficiently educated, be it in school or at home.

EFT – See EMOTIONAL FREEDOM TECHNIQUE

EHCP – See EDUCATION, HEALTH AND CARE PLAN

ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY - Is a treatment under anaesthetic that involves sending an electric current through your brain. This causes a brief surge of electrical activity within your brain (also known as a seizure). The aim is to relieve severe symptoms of some mental health problems.

ELECTROMAGNETIC THERAPY - Electromagnetic therapy encompasses various techniques that utilize electromagnetic fields to influence biological processes in the body.

ELECTRONIC PATIENT RECORD SYSTEM - Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems are digital platforms that bring all patient information, from medical history to results of investigations and medications prescribed, together in one place. EPR allows clinical staff to have instant and secure access to a complete record of patient data and information for each and every individual. They can see all the information they need to review including test results, diagnoses and treatments—on any device—without delay.

ELECTRONIC PRESCRIPTION SERVICE - The Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) allows prescribers to send prescriptions electronically to a dispenser, such as a pharmacy, nominated by the patient. This makes the prescribing and dispensing process more efficient and convenient for patients and healthcare workers

ELIGIBILITY - When a person is allowed to get or do something because certain things apply to them. Local councils determine whether people’s have eligible needs for care and support using the national eligibility threshold set out in the Care and Support (Eligibility Criteria) Regulations 2015.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA - The way local councils decide whether an adult has eligible needs for care and support. Local councils must consider whether:
– the adult’s needs arise from or are related to a physical or mental impairment or illness
– as a result of the adult’s needs, they are unable to achieve 2 or more specified outcomes, and
– because they can’t achieve these outcomes there is, or there is likely to be, a big impact on their wellbeing.

An adult’s needs are only eligible where they meet all 3 of these conditions.

EMDR - See EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITISATION AND REPROCESSING

EMPLOYMENT SPECIALIST - A specialist worker who helps people find meaningful employment

EMOTIONAL ABUSE - Where someone insults, humiliates, or threatens a person. Sometimes called psychological abuse, emotional abuse includes threats of harm, abandonment, deprivation of contact or support, blame, intimidation and isolation.

EMOTIONAL FREEDOM TECHNIQUE - Is an alternative treatment for physical pain and emotional distress. It’s also referred to as tapping or psychological acupressure.

EMOTIONAL MIND – According to Dialectical behaviour Therapy our minds operate along three primary dimensions – the emotional mind, the rational mind, and the wise mind. An emotional mindset is a state of mind where emotions and feelings are more dominant than logical thought and reasoning.

EMOTIONAL NUMBING – Is a form of dissociation where you can feel detached from your feelings. It often arises as a way to cope with overwhelming stress or trauma. While emotional detachment may seem like a protective shield against pain, it can block joy, connection, and fulfilment.

EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE PERSONALITY DISORDER - Emotionally unstable personality disorder was one of ten personality disorders defined in the ICD-10 classification system. Emotionally unstable personality disorder is characterised by instability of relationships, self-image, mood and impulsive behaviour.

EMPATHY - The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

EMPLOYMENT SPECIALIST – Refers to a worker who specialises in helping people get back into meaningful work

EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT ALLOWANCE - Is a means tested benefit for people who cannot work due to illness or disability. This benefit is being replaced by Universal Credit (UC)

EMPOWERMENT - When a person gains freedom and power to do what they want to do or to control what happens. Empowerment means that people are equal citizens. It is not possible to empower someone else, but it is possible to work and support people in ways that mean they feel empowered and they have more control and responsibility, and to change things that disempower people.

ENABLEMENT - A way of helping people to continue to live in the place they call home and to do the things that matter to them, by giving them the opportunity to relearn or regain some of the skills for daily living that may have been lost as a result of illness, accident or impairment.

END OF LIFE CARE - Support for people who are in the last months or years of their life.

ENDURING POWER OF ATTORNEY - When someone (known as the ‘attorney’) is appointed by a person (the ‘donor’) to help make, or to make, decisions about their property or money when the person cannot make a decision at the time it needs to be made because they lack capacity. The attorney must make decisions about the donor that are in their best interests. Enduring power of attorney (EPA) has been replaced by lasting power of attorney (LPA). EPAs made and signed before 1 October 2007 can still be used.

ENFORCEABILITY - When something such as a rule or a law can be made to happen the way that it says it will, because there is something in place to check and insist on it.

ENFORCEMENT ACTION - Action that can be taken to make sure that organisations such as care providers do what the law says they should. A regulator such as the Care Quality Commission can issue warnings to services that are not up to standard, make them pay a fine, or ultimately close them down if they do not improve.

ENGAGEMENT - An agreement to do something or go somewhere at a fixed time. Local councils and other organisations talk about ‘engaging’ with people and communities to find out their views – usually about how services are designed or delivered.

ENTITLEMENT - Having a right to do or receive something.

EQUALITY - Equality means treating people as equals. This means people are treated fairly and have equal chances and choices. Equality does not mean treating everyone in the same way. Some people may need extra help or support to have the same chances and choices as everyone else.

EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT - A process of considering the impact that a new policy, project or change will have on all groups of people and making sure that no-one is left out or worse off. The aim is to see whether changes to the way things are done will have a good or bad result for people from particular groups, such as disabled people, older people and people from different ethnic groups.

EQUINE THERAPY - Equine-assisted psychotherapy incorporates horses into the therapeutic process. People engage in activities such as grooming, feeding, and leading a horse while being supervised by a mental health professional.

EQUITY - Equity is about fairness. It recognises that everybody is different and will require different opportunities, support etc to live a good life and do the things that matter to them. Some people prefer the term ‘equity’ to ‘equality’ – as equality can be interpreted as treating everyone in the same way, whereas equity acknowledges that some people may need to be treated differently to ensure they have the same opportunities as other people.

EQUITY OF ACCESS - Ensuring that everyone has fair and equal opportunities to access social care support, regardless of factors such as socioeconomic status, geographic location, ethnicity, disability, or cultural background. Barriers to access can include things like language or cultural differences, digital exclusion, and lack of awareness about entitlements and support available.

EQUITY OF OUTCOMES - Ensuring that social care support results in comparable and fair improvements in people’s quality of life and well-being, regardless of their starting point or background. Challenges to equity of outcomes can include things like variations in the quality of care and support available, and social determinants of health.

EPA – See ENDURING POWER OF ATTORNEY

EPR – See ELECTRONIC PATIENT RECORD SYSTEM

EPS - See ELECTRONIC PRESCRIPTION SERVICE

ES – See EMPLOYMENT SPECIALIST

ESA – See EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT ALLOWANCE

ETHNIC GROUP - Categories used to identify and record people’s ethnicity. People may identify with a particular ethnic group due to their culture, family background, identity or physical appearance.

The main ethnic groups established by the Office for National Statistics and used in the 2021 Census are:
– Asian or Asian British
– Black, African, Caribbean or Black British
– Mixed or multiple ethnic groups
– White
– Other ethnic group

People should be able to identify their own ethnic group and assumptions should not be made about a person’s ethnicity.”

ETHNICITY - A person’s ethnicity is determined by multiple factors including their country of birth, nationality, language spoken at home, skin colour (an aspect for consideration for some and not for others), national/geographical origin and religion.

EVALUATION - A judgement about how well something works or how well it does what it is supposed to do, based on a set of clear statements about what it should be like.

EVIDENCE-BASED INTERVENTION - An initiative led by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to improve the quality of care in the NHS. It aims to reduce the number of medical interventions and treatments that are not supported by scientific evidence.

EWO – See EDUCATION WELFARE OFFICER

EUPD – See EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE PERSONALITY DISORDER

EXPERT BY EXPERIENCE - An Expert by Experience is someone who has lived experience of using health and/or social care in the past eight years and uses their experiences to shape service planning, educate professionals and students.

EXPERT PATIENT - People living with a long-term health condition who are able to take more control over their health by understanding and managing their conditions, leading to an improved quality of life.

EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITISATION AND REPROCESSING (EMDR) - EMDR is a complicated name for a type of therapy that reduces the amount of distress associated with difficult memories. People can experience difficulties in their past which can provoke strong physical, mental, and emotional responses in the present time. Whilst it is not possible erase the memories, EMDR works to lessen the intensities of the reactions associated with the difficult memories. EMDR was developed by Francine Shapiro, who made a chance observation that certain eye movements allowed her to recall difficult memories in a less emotionally heightened state. She tested her results on others and this approach was developed. The principles of EMDR are to stimulate alternate sides of the brain whilst recalling past and present memories and thinking about the future. Stimulating alternate sides (bi-lateral sensory input) of the brain can be achieved through auditory input, vibrations on paddles in each hand, or movement of something from side to side.