Senior Care Terms, Explained in Plain English

Senior care runs on acronyms, and nobody hands you a translation. Here are fifty terms you will hear from communities, hospitals, and county offices in Colorado, each in two plain sentences. If a word here still does not make sense, call us and we will explain it. It is free.

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Assisted living

Assisted living: Assisted living is a licensed home where each person has their own room or apartment and staff help with daily tasks. Help usually covers bathing, dressing, medicine, and meals, but not round the clock nursing.

In Colorado: In Colorado these buildings are licensed as Assisted Living Residences and inspected by the state health department.

How assisted living works in Colorado

Memory care

Memory care: Memory care is assisted living built for people with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia. Staff have extra training, doors are secured so no one wanders outside, and the daily routine is simpler.

In Colorado: Colorado communities that take residents who wander must hold a secure environment designation.

What to look for in memory care

Independent living

Independent living: Independent living is an apartment for older adults with no yard work, no repairs, and neighbors close by. Meals and activities are often included, but there is no hands-on personal care.

Independent living, explained

Skilled nursing

Skilled nursing: Skilled nursing is care given by licensed nurses around the clock in a licensed nursing home. People go there when they need wound care, IV medicine, feeding tubes, or nursing help every day.

Skilled nursing and rehab in Colorado

Rehab

Rehab: Rehab is short term therapy after a hospital stay, a surgery, or a fall. Physical, occupational, and speech therapists work with a person daily so they can go home stronger.

How a rehab stay works

Respite care

Respite care: Respite care is a short stay in a community, usually a week or two. Families use it so the person caring at home can rest, travel, or recover from their own surgery.

Booking a respite stay

CCRC (continuing care retirement community)

CCRC (continuing care retirement community): A CCRC is one campus that offers independent living, assisted living, and nursing care in different buildings. A resident can move to more help without leaving the campus.

In Colorado: Most Colorado CCRCs charge a large entrance fee up front, so read the refund terms closely.

Board and care home

Board and care home: A board and care home is a regular house where a small number of older adults live with staff on site. It feels like a family home rather than a building with hallways.

In Colorado: In Colorado these are often called group homes and hold the same Assisted Living Residence license as larger buildings.

Secured unit

Secured unit: A secured unit is a wing or floor with doors that need a code to open. It keeps residents who wander from walking outside without staff.

Sundowning

Sundowning: Sundowning is when confusion, worry, or anger gets worse in the late afternoon and evening. It is common in dementia and often improves with light, quiet, and a steady routine.

Dementia basics for families

ADLs (activities of daily living)

ADLs (activities of daily living): ADLs are the basic tasks of taking care of your body: bathing, dressing, eating, using the toilet, and moving from bed to chair. How many a person needs help with sets the level of care.

IADLs (instrumental activities of daily living)

IADLs (instrumental activities of daily living): IADLs are the tasks of running a household: cooking, cleaning, driving, paying bills, and managing medicine. Trouble here is often the first sign that living alone is getting risky.

Level of care assessment

Level of care assessment: A level of care assessment is a visit where a nurse asks questions and watches how a person moves, thinks, and manages medicine. The score decides what help the community will provide and what the monthly care fee will be.

Take the free care level finder

Care plan

Care plan: A care plan is the written list of what staff will do for one resident and when. Ask to see it, because it is the promise you can hold a community to.

QMAP

QMAP: A QMAP is a staff member trained and approved to hand out medicine in a licensed community. They are not nurses, so they follow the written orders exactly.

In Colorado: QMAP stands for Qualified Medication Administration Personnel and is a Colorado specific certification.

CNA (certified nursing assistant)

CNA (certified nursing assistant): A CNA is trained and state certified to help with bathing, dressing, moving, and toileting. They give most of the hands-on care in assisted living and nursing homes.

LPN (licensed practical nurse)

LPN (licensed practical nurse): An LPN is a licensed nurse who gives medicine, treats wounds, and watches for changes in health. They usually report to a registered nurse.

RN (registered nurse)

RN (registered nurse): An RN is a nurse with the widest license, able to assess health, write care plans, and direct other staff. Ask whether an RN is in the building or only on call.

CDP (certified dementia practitioner)

CDP (certified dementia practitioner): A CDP has completed approved training in caring for people with dementia. The letters tell you the person studied the behavior you are seeing, not just general caregiving.

CDP certification for care teams

CADDCT

CADDCT: CADDCT stands for Certified Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia Care Trainer. A person with these letters is approved to teach the dementia certification course to other staff.

Meet our CADDCT trainer

Eden Alternative

Eden Alternative: The Eden Alternative is a way of running a community that treats loneliness and boredom as problems to solve. Plants, pets, children, and resident choice are built into the day.

Meet our Eden Certified practitioner

CDPHE

CDPHE: CDPHE is the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. It licenses assisted living residences and nursing homes and publishes their inspection reports.

In Colorado: You can look up any Colorado community's license and recent survey findings on the CDPHE website before you tour.

HCPF

HCPF: HCPF is the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. It runs Health First Colorado, the state Medicaid program, and the waivers that pay for long term care.

Medicaid

Medicaid: Medicaid is health coverage for people with low income and few assets. It is the main program that pays for long term care once savings run out.

In Colorado: Colorado calls its Medicaid program Health First Colorado.

How Colorado families pay for care

EBD waiver

EBD waiver: The EBD waiver is a Colorado Medicaid program for adults who are elderly, blind, or disabled. It pays for care in an assisted living building instead of a nursing home.

In Colorado: Waiver slots and participating buildings are limited, so ask a community directly whether it takes the EBD waiver.

HCBS (home and community based services)

HCBS (home and community based services): HCBS is the group of Medicaid programs that pay for care outside a nursing home. The EBD waiver is one of them.

Alternative care facility

Alternative care facility: An alternative care facility is an assisted living building approved to accept Medicaid waiver residents. The care is the same, the payment source is different.

In Colorado: Colorado uses the letters ACF for these buildings, and only some assisted living residences hold the designation.

Medicare

Medicare: Medicare is federal health insurance for people 65 and older and for some younger people with disabilities. It pays for doctors, hospitals, and short rehab stays, not for long term assisted living rent.

Medicare Part A rehab days

Medicare Part A rehab days: After a qualifying hospital stay, Medicare Part A can pay for up to 100 days of skilled nursing care. The first 20 days are covered in full and the rest carry a daily copay.

What happens when rehab days run out

Long-term care insurance

Long-term care insurance: Long-term care insurance is a private policy bought years ahead that pays a daily or monthly amount toward care. Read the policy to see whether assisted living counts or only nursing care does.

Elimination period

Elimination period: The elimination period is the number of days you pay for care yourself before a long-term care policy starts paying. Thirty, sixty, and ninety days are common.

VA Aid & Attendance

VA Aid & Attendance: VA Aid and Attendance is extra monthly money for veterans and surviving spouses who need help with daily tasks. It is paid to the veteran and can go toward rent in a community.

Benefits that help pay for care

Spend down

Spend down: Spend down means using savings on care until you qualify for Medicaid. Keep every receipt, because the state reviews how the money was spent.

Private pay

Private pay: Private pay means the family pays the monthly bill from income, savings, or the sale of a house. Most Colorado families start here.

Community fee (move-in fee)

Community fee (move-in fee): A community fee is a one time charge at move-in, often between 1,500 and 5,000 dollars. Some buildings call it a move-in fee and it is usually not refundable.

Contract review checklist

30 day notice

30 day notice: A 30 day notice is the written warning most contracts require before a resident moves out. Give it late and you pay for another month.

In Colorado: Most Colorado assisted living agreements use a 30 day notice on both sides, so check the discharge terms too.

Discharge planner

Discharge planner: A discharge planner is the hospital staff member who arranges where a patient goes next. They work fast, so bring your own short list to that conversation.

Hospital discharge checklist

Social worker: A social worker helps families find services, apply for benefits, and handle the emotional side of a move. Hospitals, nursing homes, and county offices all have them.

Geriatric care manager

Geriatric care manager: A geriatric care manager is a nurse or social worker you hire to oversee an older adult's care over time. They charge by the hour and often help families who live far away.

Senior placement advisor

Senior placement advisor: A senior placement advisor helps a family choose and move into a community. A good one tours with you, knows the buildings from the inside, and tells you which ones to skip.

How working with us works

Referral fee

Referral fee: A referral fee is what a community pays an advisor after a resident moves in. It is why placement help is free to families, and it is why you should ask any advisor which buildings pay them.

Why our help is free

Power of attorney

Power of attorney: A power of attorney is a signed document naming who can make decisions for someone else. There is usually one for money and one for medical choices.

Advance directive

Advance directive: An advance directive writes down the medical care a person does and does not want if they cannot speak for themselves. A living will is one kind.

MOST form

MOST form: A MOST form is a medical order that records choices about resuscitation, feeding tubes, and hospital transfers. A doctor signs it and paramedics follow it.

In Colorado: Colorado uses the MOST form, short for Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment, and it should travel with the resident.

Hospice

Hospice: Hospice is comfort care for someone expected to live six months or less. It comes to where the person lives, including an assisted living apartment.

Palliative care

Palliative care: Palliative care treats pain, breathing trouble, and stress at any stage of a serious illness. Unlike hospice, a person can receive it while still seeking treatment.

Home health

Home health: Home health is nursing or therapy ordered by a doctor and delivered where a person lives. It covers visits, not someone staying all day.

Adult day program

Adult day program: An adult day program gives an older adult a place to spend the day with meals, activities, and supervision. It gives a working family caregiver hours back.

Waiting list

Waiting list: A waiting list is the order in which people are offered the next open apartment. Ask how long the list really is and whether a deposit holds your place.

Tuck-In

Tuck-In: Tuck-In is our free four hour move-in day support. Someone from our team is there while boxes arrive, beds get made, and staff meet the new resident.

What move-in support includes

Frequently asked questions

Senior care sits where health care, housing, and government benefits meet, and each of those fields brought its own shorthand. Staff use the letters daily and forget that families are hearing them for the first time. Ask anyone to say the full words, and if they cannot explain a term plainly, call us at (720) 677-5580 and we will.

No. Assisted living is a licensed home where staff help with bathing, dressing, medicine, and meals, and most residents do not need a nurse every day. A nursing home, licensed as skilled nursing, has licensed nurses on duty around the clock for wound care, IV medicine, and daily medical needs. The cost, the license, and the feel of the building are all different.

We can, and it is free. Our team includes a licensed practical nurse and two licensed assisted living administrators who have written these assessments from the community side, so we can read the score with you and tell you whether it matches what you see at home. Call (720) 677-5580 or book a free call.