Glossary/Acronyms
This page lists some commonly used terms and abbreviations
that regularly appear in publications and project work
done by the Centre for Health Service Development. This
list is by no means exhaustive, but aims to aid those
interested in our work.
Glossary
Activities of daily living (ADL):
Personal care tasks such as eating/drinking, washing
self, using the toilet, rising from a chair, getting
in/out of bed, moving around indoors, dressing, walking
outdoors.
Carer:
A person who supports and has most contact with a dependent
older person and is not paid for their work.
Community care:
The policy of providing social support (and health
care) to a majority of older people in their own homes
rather than in an institution.
Competency:
Term used in legal situations where a person's competency
to change a will, look after their affairs, or be tried
for criminal actions is in doubt. Careful mental state
testing is required, often repeated, to determine competency.
In those people with problems various legal protections
can be organised.
Dependency:
The extent to which a person needs help from others
to maintain a normal life; distinct from autonomy.
Disability:
Inability to perform tasks in a normal manner.
Handicap:
Is the social disadvantage or loss of role associated
with disease. It is possible for impairment to result
in handicap independent of disability (for example,
port wine birthmark may cause social handicap without
any disability).
Health related quality of life:
Like quality of life, this is an amorphous concept
and a wide range of pertinent domains have been identified
in the literature, including the perceived impact of
health on optimum levels of physical, psychological
and social well being and functioning, level of independence
and control over life, and satisfaction with these levels.
Health status:
Perceived physical, psychological and social health.
Impairment:
Is the anatomical or physiological damage caused by
disease (for example, reduction in cardiac output caused
by ischaemic heart disease, restriction in joint movement
caused by osteoarthritis). (See Impairment, Disability
and Handicap).
Impairment, Disability and Handicap:
The World Health Organisation (International Classification
of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps. Geneva:
WHO, 1980) made these important distinctions between
the ways in which chronic diseases have an impact on
the individual. This classification has since been revised
to Impairments, Activities and Participation as the
terms disability and handicap may be viewed as stigmatising
by some people. (World Health Organisation ICIDH-2.
Geneva: WHO, 1998).
Instrumental activities of daily living (IADL):
Household, rather than personal, management activities:
preparing meals, bed making, laundry/ironing, managing
money, using the telephone, shopping and heavy housework.
Rehabilitation:
Formally defined as the action of re-establishing a
person in a former standing with respect to rank and
legal rights and, in the context of medicine, is concerned
with reablement of a person through provision of a stimulating
environment, and encouraging greater activity, participation
and autonomy; and re-settlement either in the person's
own home or in alternative, more sheltered accommodation.
Often necessary for older people after a short acute
illness.
Respite care:
The temporary admission of a dependent older person
to an institution to provide both a period of rest (or
respite) for the carer and an opportunity for palliative
or rehabilitative care for the person.
Social handicap:
Barriers to participation and independent functioning
imposed by society, as in the case of the built environment
and public transport not taking degenerative changes
of older age into account in their design.
Social network:
The set of links between identified groups of people.
Social support:
The interactive process through which emotional and
instrumental aid, information and guidance is received
from a person's social network.
Structured dependency:
Dependency in old age is structured by the dominant
economic and political forces (for example, the timing,
experience and outcome of retirement is related to the
supply and demand for labour; welfare services are said
to stigmatise older people though the imposition of
age related policies).
Acronyms
ADL - Activities of daily living
AHOC - Australian Health Outcomes Collaboration
ALOS - Average length of stay
AN-DRG - Australian National Diagnosis Related Group
AN-SNAP - Australian National Sub-Acute and Non-Acute
Patient Classification
System
ANZ-HAMN - Australia and New Zealand Health Assessment
Methods Network
AOSC - Australasian Occupational Science Centre
AROC - Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre
CHSD - Centre for Health Service Development
CI - Confidence interval
ED - Emergency department
GEM - Geriatric Evaluation and Management
GP - General practitioner
HACC - Home And Community Care
INI - Initial needs identification
LGA's - Local government areas
LoS - Length of stay
NHDD - National Health Data Dictionary
ONI - Ongoing needs identification
OoS - Occasion of service
PCOC - Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration
QoL - Quality of life
SNAP - Sub and Non-Acute Patients
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