Your Guide to ADLs and Assisted Living

Learning about the services assisted living communities provide and how they improve your or a loved one’s life before making the move is a prudent investment of time. You will encounter the term ADLs or activities of daily living.

What are the activities of daily living?

• Eating. Preparing and feeding meals.
• Transferring. Assistance with movement and mobility, like walking around the home, community or grounds.
• Bathing. Assistance with personal hygiene tasks like bathing, showering, oral hygiene, and grooming.
• Toileting. Assistance with using the toilet.
• Dressing. Putting out outfits to wear and helping residents get dressed.

In addition to this assistance, aides can also provide IADLs, which is assistance with instrumental activities of daily living. These are more complex activities like helping with cooking, cleaning, finances, shopping, medication management and so on.

Qualifying for assisted living

Assisted living residents usually require assistance with one or more ADL. Assistance is provided only as and when a resident requires it, so only residents needing help with bathing will get that support as well as encouragement to maintain their other ADLs as independently as possible until they need more assistance.

In the qualification process of applying for assisted living, the team will evaluate you or your loved one’s need for assistance with ADLs and IADLs, so it’s important to be as honest and forthcoming as possible in order to clearly present your needs and how they can help meet them.

Pitman – A compassionate, warm assisted living community in NJ 

Pitman is an assisted living community in Gloucester County, NJ, offering high quality services in a comfortable, well-supported and beautiful environment. As part of United Methodist Communities, we also offer senior rehabilitation, access to therapists, hospice care, respite care and memory care and support services. We welcome seniors from all faith backgrounds.

To find out more about our assisted living community, please visit our website at https://umcommunities.org/pitman/ contact us today or book a personal tour.