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Glossary

These are terms commonly used by individuals who care for older adults on a continuum of care from independent to dependent.

Activities of Daily Living (ADL's): An individual's daily routine, including bathing, dressing, grooming, eating, walking and other personal care functions.

Adult Day Care: A daycare center that offers health-related and rehabilitative services, social involvement, arts and crafts, meals and therapeutic or recreational activities to meet the needs of older adults who may have physical or mental impairments.

Advance Directives: Legal documents including a Living Will and Medical Power of Attorney for Health Care that enable individuals to indicate their wishes about medical treatment and end-of-life decisions in case they are medically or mentally incapacitated when these decisions need to be made. These documents may also include a Durable Power of Attorney that allows a designated person to make financial and legal decisions for someone who is unable to do so themselves.

Assisted Living Facilities: Residences that combine housing, supportive services, personalized assistance, and health care to respond to the individual needs of those who need assistance with ADL's, but who do not need the level of skilled medical care provided in a nursing home. Assisted Living residences fall into two categories: Centers that provide resident rooms or units for eleven or more people and Homes that provide resident rooms for 10 or fewer people.

Care (Case) Management: Care/Case managers assess and advocate for the needs of their clients, create care plans, and coordinate and monitor delivery of services.

Community-based Care: The blend of health and social services provided to an individual or family in their place of residence for the purpose of promoting, maintaining or restoring health following an illness. The goal is to maintain or improve independence and minimize the effects of illness and disability.

Congregate Living: Apartments or rooms that are part of a multi-unit building complex where meals and social activities are provided in a common area and where residents can receive some assistance with daily activities.

Congregate Meals: A program that provided meals and socialization for older people in a common location.

Conservator: A person appointed by a court of law that is responsible for managing the financial affairs and other life decisions for someone who is no longer competent.

Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC's): Residential living communities for older adults that offer healthcare and residential services to meet the changing needs of the residents from independent to dependent care. Also called Life Care Communities.

Custodial Care: Assistance and supervision with daily living activities - dressing, eating, personal hygiene and other functions as listed above under, "Activities of Daily Living."

Estate Planning: A plan that outlines how a person's personal assets and financial obligations will be resolved and distributed after death.
• Will: A legal document that outlines how a person's assets and belongings will be distributed after death.

Home Delivered Meals: A low-cost or no-cost home-delivered meal service of nutritionally balanced food for homebound individuals.

Homemaker/Home Chore Services: Residential or in-home services such as laundry, light housekeeping, cooking and personal care (does not include skilled nursing care).

Hospice: A coordinated program of at-home and hospital care for terminally ill patients, their family and friends that combines medical and social services. Hospice emphasizes pain control, symptom management, emotional support and end-of-life quality care rather than life-sustaining treatment.

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL's): Activities pertaining to daily living needs such as shopping, using the telephone, cooking, housekeeping and taking medications.

Primary Caregiver: The person who has the main responsibility for providing informal (non-paid) assistance to a dependent individual.

Respite: A service that provides temporary care to an older person in order to allow primary caregivers some short-term relief from their daily responsibilities. Services include in-home care, brief stays in a skilled nursing facility or adult care home, or adult day care.

Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF): A facility (also known as a nursing home), licensed by the state, that offers residents medically-skilled and long-term care on a 24-hour-a-day basis. SNF's provide nursing care, personal care, supervision, medication management and rehabilitation therapies.

Sources
Information & Referral Services of Tucson, Caregivers Resource Guide, 2001-2002 Sixth Edition.
Elder Care and Life Cycle Resources - A Program of UA Life & Work Connections, Glossary of Commonly Used Terms in Aging-Related Fields. Excerpts reprinted with permission of the University of Arizona's Life & Work Connections, a unit of Human Resources.

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