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Senior Glossary
Activities of Daily Living (ADLs): Activities people usually do for themselves in the course of a normal day including bathing, dressing, grooming, eating, walking, using the telephone, taking medications, and other personal care activities. Adult Protective Services (APS): Services that protect the rights of frail older adults by investigating cases of abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation as mandated by law. Advance Directive: Legal document allowing people, if they become incapacitated, to give others legally binding instructions about their preference regarding health care decisions. Types of advance directives include documents such as the living will and durable power of attorney for health care. Affordable Care Act (ACA): The comprehensive health care reform law enacted in March 2010 (sometimes known as ACA, PPACA, or “Obamacare”). Aging in Place: Choosing to remain at home instead of moving to a senior living arrangement. Typically means that older adults get to retain a level of autonomy and independence not available with other senior living options. Alzheimer’s Disease: Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia that affects memory, thinking, and behavior. Symptoms eventually grow severe enough to interfere with daily tasks. Area Agency on Aging: A local or regional agency, funded under the federal Older Americans Act through the state unit on aging, that plans and coordinates various social and health service programs for persons 60 years of age and older. The national network of AAA offices consists of 655 approved area agencies on aging (not including Native American Aging Programs). Assisted Living Facilities: A facility that provides a combination of housing and personalized health care in a professionally managed group setting designed to respond to the individual needs of persons who need help with activities of daily living. The facility provides care to residents who cannot live independently, but individuals do not require 24-hour nursing care. Assistive Technology: Any service or tool that helps the elderly or disabled do the activities they have always done but must now do differently. These tools are also sometimes called “adaptive devices.” Such technology may be something as simple as using a walker to make it easier to move around or an amplification device to make sounds easier to hear when talking on the telephone or watching television.
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Frequently Used Aging Terms
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