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Elder Care Glossary                                     Back to Articles & Information

Date: 1999, Sep 18
From: Carla MacGregor

Activities of Daily Living (ADL's)
Bathing, dressing, grooming, eating, bed mobility, transferring, toileting, and walking.

Adult Day Care Center
A structured program, usually weekdays, which may feature activities, meals, health and rehabilitative services for the elderly in a supervised setting. Transportation is sometimes included in the fee.

Advanced Directives
These are a way for an individual to accept or refuse medical care. They can protect your rights even if you become mentally or physically unable to choose or communicate your wishes. Living Wills and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care are two examples of Advanced Directives.

Assisted Living
A facility that provides individual living units, which may or may not have a kitchenette. Facility offers 24 hour on site response staff. Additional nursing or homemaker services can be provided at an additional fee.

Case Manager (Care Manager)
A social worker or health care professional who evaluates, plans, locates, coordinates and monitors services with an older person and the family.

Chore/Housekeeping Services
Services include yard and house maintenance, home and appliance repair, housekeeping or meal preparation, shopping and transportation. No personal care is provided. Not covered by Medicare.

Companion
A companion provides assistance with shopping, meal preparation, escort, companionship, and home upkeep. No personal care or nursing care is provided.

Conservator
Person appointed by the court in a legal proceeding to act as the legal representative of a person who is mentally or physically incapable of managing his or her own affairs.

Durable Power of Attorney
A power of attorney that stays in effect even after the maker becomes incompetent.

Emergency Response Systems
Allows for 24 hour monitoring and response to medical or other emergencies.

Estate Planning
Steps you can take while living to determine what happens to your property when you die.

Guardianship
Similar to a Conservatorship yet severely restricts the legal rights of an elder based on a court's finding of legal incompetence.

Health Care Power of Attorney
Allows the holder to decide on the health care of an incompetent person.

Home Health Agency
Medical care in the home. Services can include nursing, occupational, speech or physical therapy, social work, or a home health aide. Medicare usually only covers this care during an acute period of illness.

Home Health Aide
Provides personal care: including bathing, dressing and grooming, and some household services.

Hospice
Medical and social programs for terminally ill patients and families either at home or in a facility.

Incapacity
Can be mental or physical, temporary or permanent. A person can be incapacitated without being incompetent.

Incompetence
Requires a legal declaration of being found incapable of handling assets and exercising certain legal rights.

Living Will
A document that makes a person's wishes regarding medical treatments at the end of life known.

Long-Term Care Facilities
Institutions that provide nursing care to people who are unable to care for themselves and who may have health problems ranging from minimal to serious. These facilities are often used for short-term rehabilitation after hospitalization.

Long-Term Care Insurance
A privately paid policy, which provides money for pre-determined health care costs after policy holder meets certain medical requirements.

Medicaid / Medical Assistance
A federal and state government program in which the states provide health care for low-income people.

Medicare
Federal program providing health care coverage/insurance for people over 65 and some disabled. Part A covers in-patient care, skilled nursing facility, hospice and short-term health care. Part B covers doctors' services, outpatient hospital care, and durable medical equipment. It does not provide for long-term care of the elderly except under limited conditions.

Ombudsman
A person who investigates consumer complaints against a nursing home or community resident facility.

Power of Attorney
A legal document allowing one person to act in a legal matter on another's behalf.

Respite
Designed to relieve the caregiver from caregiver duties either in the home, community setting or care facility. Care may be from a few hours to several weeks.