Accelerated Death Benefit - A feature of a life insurance policy that allows use of the death benefit prior to death.

Activities of Daily Living (ADL’s) - Basic functional tasks of everyday life: dressing, bathing, meals, and toileting.

Active Living - Independent living for those 55 and above. May include amenities and activities programs.

Advance Directives - Documents that express future planning involving a Living Will, Health Care Power of Attorney, Durable Power of Attorney, Medical Directive, etc.

Agency - The individual authorized to make legal decisions for the principal - usually a trusted family member or friend.

Alzheimer’s Disease - Progressive, degenerative form of dementia that causes severe intellectual deterioration.

Alzheimer’s Facility - Offers specialized programs for people with Alzheimer’s Disease or other forms of dementia, and memory loss. May be offered in assisted living, nursing homes, or residential facilities.

Assisted Living - Facilities provide assistance with activities of daily living and medication (bathing, meals, dressing).

Beneficiaries - The individuals named in a will who receive the estate upon the death of the will maker.

Benefit Period - The way Medicare measures a persons use of hospital and skilled nursing facility services. For nursing care, a benefit period begins the day of admission and ends when the person has not received hospital or skilled care for 60 days in a row. If the person has a qualifying stay in a hospital after the benefit period ends, a new benefit period begins.

Conservator - In some states, the guardian who manages the individual’s assets.

Caregiver - One who provides care for another who is ill, disabled, or needs ADL assistance.

Care Managers - Assess a person’s mental, physical, environmental, and financial status to develop a care plan assisting in housing, health care, long-term care, etc.

Chronic Illness - Illness with one or more of the following: permanency, residual disability, requires rehabilitation training, or long period supervision, observation, or care.

Cognitive Impairment - A deficiency in a person’s short or long-term memory; orientation as to person, place and time; deductive or abstract reasoning; safety awareness is impaired.

Community Based Services - Services designed to assist older people stay independent in their own homes.

Companion Services - Services that may include home supervision, companion socialization and transportation.

Congregate Housing - Senior apartments where residents live independently in their own units, but share meals in a central dining room and receive housekeeping services.

Consumer Directed Care - Consumers are provided information to make informed choices regarding health care.

Continuing Care Community - Housing that offers a variety of living options on one campus to meet health care changes as one ages.

Custodial Care - Care to help individuals meet ADL’s. May be provided by a non-professional.

Day Care - Program provides a range of geriatric day services that may include socialization, nutrition, nursing and rehabilitation.

Dementia - Deterioration of intellectual faculties due to a disorder of the brain.

Durable Power of Attorney for Finances - Document appointing another person to make financial decisions on behalf of another, and/or when a person is unable to manage their own affairs.

Elder Law - Attorneys who specialize in elder issues such as estate planning, wills, health care decisions, guardianships, and finances.

Executor - The individual named in a will who manages the estate of a deceased individual.

Grantor/Trustor - The creator of the living trust.

Guardianship - A person appointed by a court to be responsible for care and management of another who is determined by a court as no longer able to make their own decisions.

Health Care Power of Attorney - Like Durable Power of Attorney. A person is appointed to make health care decisions for another who is incapacitated, or cannot make decisions for themselves.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) - Federal health insurance legislation passed in 1996 that allows, under specified conditions, long-term care insurance policies to be qualified for certain tax benefits. Also requires all medical records and other individually identifiable health information used or disclosed in any form be kept confidential.