Home Care Glossary

Care Types

Non-hands-on support focused on socialization, light housekeeping, meal prep, errands, and safety supervision.

Care Types

Non-medical support delivered in a person's residence — companionship, personal care, meal prep, transportation, and household help.

Care Types

Short-term, doctor-ordered medical care delivered at home by licensed clinicians — often Medicare-covered after a hospital stay.

Care Types

Visit-based care billed by the hour with a four-hour minimum — used for predictable daily routines or supplemental shifts.

Care Types

A caregiver who stays in the home for 24-hour blocks (typically 3–4 days), with a private bedroom and 8 hours of nightly sleep.

Care Types

Hands-on assistance with the activities of daily living (ADLs) — bathing, dressing, toileting, grooming, transfers, and feeding.

Care Types

Short-term professional care designed to give a family caregiver a planned break — anywhere from a four-hour shift to a multi-week stay.

Care Types

Higher-acuity home care for clients with dementia, Parkinson's, post-stroke needs, or complex transfer requirements.

Roles & People

A high-performing caregiver designation reserved for the most experienced staff — used to start most new care cases and serve as on-call coverage for urgent staffing needs.

Roles & People

A trained, vetted professional (or unpaid family member) who provides hands-on support for an older adult's daily living needs.

Roles & People

An everyday synonym for caregiver — the person providing day-to-day support for an older adult, whether family or professional.

Roles & People

An unpaid relative — usually an adult child, spouse, or sibling — who provides ongoing care for an older loved one.

Roles & People

A trained aide working under a Medicare-certified home health agency — typically for short-term help during a doctor-ordered home health episode.

Roles & People

A trained aide who provides hands-on, non-medical help with bathing, dressing, toileting, and transfers — the most common professional caregiver role.

Health & Conditions

The six basic self-care tasks — bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, continence, and eating — used to measure independence.

Health & Conditions

The complex tasks of independent living — managing money, medications, cooking, shopping, transportation, housework, and using the phone.

Paying for Care

Private insurance that pays a daily benefit for home care, assisted living, or nursing facility care once the policyholder needs help with two or more ADLs.

Process & Planning

The practice of staying in your own home as you age, with the right support and home modifications, instead of moving to a facility.

Process & Planning

The free, in-home conversation an agency conducts before service starts to understand the client's needs and design the care plan.

Process & Planning

A written document that defines what care is provided, when, by whom, and how it adjusts as the client's needs change.

Process & Planning

A structured, in-person transition where a starting caregiver personally introduces and orients the ongoing caregiver to a client before stepping back — transferring lived knowledge a written care plan cannot.