Glossary
Psychiatric Aide Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential psychiatric aide terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key psychiatric aide vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in psychiatric aide training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- ADLs
- Daily living activities.
- Behavior plan
- Strategies for behavior.
- Contraband
- Prohibited items.
- De-escalation
- Calming tense situations.
- Elopement
- Leaving without permission.
- Incident report
- Event documentation.
- Milieu
- Therapeutic environment.
- Observation level
- How closely a patient is watched.
- Psychosis
- Losing touch with reality.
- Restraint
- A last resort to limit movement.
- Room search
- Checking for hazards.
- Safety rounds
- Regular patient checks.
- Suicide precautions
- Measures to prevent self-harm.
- Therapeutic communication
- Supportive talk.
- Trauma-informed care
- Care sensitive to trauma.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Psychiatric Aide practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Psychiatric Aide training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.