Glossary

Activities of Daily Living (ADLs): Activities of daily living (ADLs) are the everyday activities involved in personal care such as feeding, dressing, bathing, moving from a bed to a chair (also called transferring), toileting, and walking.

Administration on Aging (AoA): For over 35 years, the AoA has provided home and community-based services to millions of older persons through the programs funded under the Older Americans Act. Each year the Department receives millions of dollars in federal funds from AoA to contract with the regional area agencies on aging.

Adult Day Services Centers: Adult Day Services provide a protective environment within a state-licensed nonresidential facility (or setting) for older adults who are not capable of full-time independent living. These are generally a 9-5 Monday through Friday operation.

Advance Directives: The term advance directive can describe a variety of documents: Living Will, a Health Care Power of Attorney, and some states also have a document specifically called an Advance Health Care Directive. This term can refer to any of these specific documents or all of them in general.

Alzheimer's Disease: The most common cause of dementia or loss of intellectual function, among people aged 65 and older. Symptoms begin with loss of memory and rational thinking and usually progress to total mental disability over a number of years.

Assisted Living Facility (ALF): Residents in assisted living centers are not able to live by themselves but do not require constant care either. Assisted living facilities offer help with ADLs such as eating, bathing, dressing, laundry, housekeeping, and assistance with medications. Many facilities also have centers for medical care; however, the care offered may not be as intensive or available to residents as the care offered at a nursing home.

Area Agencies on Aging: (AAA’s) are the local representatives for the Department of Aging.

Beneficiary: A beneficiary is the person or financial institution, one named in a policy to receive the proceeds. (For example, a beneficiary of a life insurance policy, a beneficiary of a trust, beneficiary under a Will.)

Caregiver: Caregiving is the act of assisting someone you care about, who is chronically ill or disabled and unable to care for him/herself. Caregivers provide a vast array of emotional, financial, nursing, social, homemaking, and other services on a daily or intermittent basis.

Care Manager: Someone or an agency that assists seniors and aging adults and their families with the challenges associated with managing the affairs of the elderly—often providing elder care and healthcare counseling, crisis intervention, and needs evaluations.

Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA): CNAs are trained and certified to help nurses by providing nonmedical assistance to patients, such as help with eating, cleaning, and dressing.

Chronic Illness or Condition: This is a disease that lasts over a long period of time and cannot be cured.

Congregate Meal Programs: Nutritional programs that provide lunches for older adults which usually run Monday through Friday in senior and community centers.

Coordination of Benefits: A provision in a health insurance plan that tells which health plan or insurance policy pays first if two health plans or insurance policies cover the same benefits. If one of the plans is Medicare, federal law may determine who pays first.

Dementia: Is a health condition that involves the deterioration of intellectual abilities (e.g., vocabulary, abstract thinking, judgment, memory loss, physical coordination), which interferes with daily activities. Dementia can be caused by degenerative diseases (e.g., Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases), vascular diseases or stroke, metabolic disorders (thyroid, liver/kidney dysfunction, and certain vitamin deficiencies), AIDS, drugs and alcohol, and psychiatric disorders. Some dementias may respond to treatments, others do not.

Depression: Symptoms may consist of a persistent sad mood, loss of interest in daily activities, and difficulty sleeping. This is one of the most undiagnosed conditions among seniors.

Directive to Physicians: A legal document designed to help an individual communicate their wishes about medical treatment at some time in the future when they are unable to make their wishes known because of illness or injury.

Domiciliary Care (DOM): This is a supervised living arrangement for adults unable to live alone. The Department of Aging certifies DOM care homes, which must meet state and federal fire, safety, health, sanitary, and program standards. Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) are responsible for the assessment and placement of residents in DOM care homes.

Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare: A legal document in which an individual names a person as his or her agent to make healthcare decisions on behalf of them when they are not able to give medical consent. This document can give the agent the power to withdraw or continue life-sustaining procedures.

Eldercare Locator: Available through AoA, the Eldercare Locator is a free, nationwide directory assistance service. It helps elderly adults find local support groups and services in their area.

Estate: All of an individual’s assets and debts at the time of their death.

Executor: The individual named in a Will who is responsible for administering an estate during probate.

Geriatric Care Managers: Individuals trained in geriatric care management who provide case management services on a fee-for-service basis.

Geriatrician: A physician who specializes in the care of the elderly.

Home Healthcare: An alternative to hospitalization or nursing home care for patients who do not need 24-hour-a-day supervision. Services are provided in the patient’s home under the direction of a physician.

Hospice: Hospice and palliative care involve a team-oriented approach to expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support expressly tailored to the patient’s needs and wishes. The core belief of hospice and palliative care is that each of us has the right to die pain-free and with dignity, and that our families will receive the necessary support to allow us to do so. Hospice focuses on caring, not curing and, in most cases, care is provided in the patient’s home. Hospice care also is provided in freestanding hospice centers, hospitals and nursing homes, and other long-term care facilities. Hospice services are available to patients of any age, religion, race, or illness. Hospice care is covered under Medicare, Medicaid, most private insurance plans, HMOs, and other managed care organizations.

Intermediate Care Facility: This is a facility that provides 24-hour personal care, developmental services, and nursing supervision for developmentally disabled persons who have intermittent recurring needs for skilled nursing care but have been certified by a physician and surgeon as not requiring continuous skilled nursing care. The facility shall serve medically fragile persons who have developmental disabilities or demonstrate significant developmental delay that may lead to a developmental disability if not treated.

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs): These are tasks that a person must be able to perform in order to live independently. Examples include shopping, cooking, using the telephone, laundry, light housekeeping, bill paying, and medication management.

Living Will: A written document in which an individual conveys his or her desire to die a natural death and not be kept alive by artificial means. Unlike a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, the wishes in this document are not legally enforceable in some states.

Long-Term Care (LTC): A general term that describes a wide range of medical, nursing, custodial, social, and community services provided over an extended period of time. These services are designed to help people with chronic illness or forms of dementia live as independently as possible.

Long-Term Care Insurance: Private insurance that may pay for home care, or care in an assisted living facility or nursing home.

Meals on Wheels: Local agencies provide low cost, hot, nourishing meals to the elderly and disabled in their homes.

Medicaid: A state and federally financed program that provides medical care to low income persons.

Medicare: A federal medical coverage program for persons who are over 65 years old or who are disabled. It is funded by Social Security deductions and has no income or resource restrictions. It does not pay for long-term custodial care.

Medigap: This is supplemental insurance designed to complement Medicare’s benefits by filling in some of the gaps of Medicare coverage. Medigap insurance policies are nongroup policies that may pay for Medicare deductibles, prescription drugs, or other services not covered by Medicare.

Nursing Home: A state-licensed residential facility that provides rooms, meals, help with activities of daily living, recreation, and general nursing care to people who are chronically ill or unable to take care of their daily living needs. It may also be called a Long-Term Care Facility. If it has been certified as such by Medicare, it is also referred to as a Skilled Nursing Facility.

Protective Services (PS): Protective Services offers a hotline where individuals can report physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, neglect, cruelty, and desertion. This service is also available for those who are in danger of posing a threat to themselves.

Respite Care: This is a short-term stay in a nursing facility to permit the family/caregiver some rest.

Social Security Retirement Benefits: Benefits, which eligible workers and their families receive, when the worker retires. The individual must work for a specified period at a job that is covered by Social Security to be eligible for benefits. A worker must be at least 62-years-old to receive Social Security.

Social Security Disability Benefits: Social Security benefits payable to disabled workers and their families.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI): A federal program which provides cash assistance to the aged, blind, and disabled who have limited income and resources.

Term Life Insurance: Covers a person for a period of one or more years. It pays a death benefit only if you die during that term. It generally does not build cash value.

Trust: A legal arrangement in which an individual (the trustor) gives financial control of property to a person or institution (the trustee) for the benefit of one or more beneficiaries.

Will: The document an individual signs which states how their estate should be distributed upon their death. This is generally written by an attorney and must meet certain state-specific legal criteria.

Whole Life Insurance: Policies that build cash value and cover a person for as long as he or she lives if premiums continue to be paid.