Activities of Daily Living (ADLs): The Basics
Links to Posts that Discuss Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) Are At the End of this Post
I had not heard about activities of daily living or ADL’s until a year or two ago after a family member had a stroke. Essentially ADL’s are the things we all do day in and day out throughout the course of a single day. They include tasks such as dressing, toileting, bathing, walking, grooming, preparing food and eating, and managing medications. Check out this link for a list of ADL’s.
As we age, the activities of daily life gradually become harder to accomplish on our own, and they consume more and more of our day. Increased support, often provided in assisted living environments, enables individuals to continue to live quasi-independently while getting assistance with tasks that are challenging. Assisted living often provides a smaller living environment which helps make ADL’s easier and provides care on an increasing scale as a person needs more and more help.There is no particular age when people lose the ability to handle their own activities of daily living. Rather there is an alignment of issues, especially health and mobility which can become less vigorous as people age. Small things like a fall or big things like a stroke or other serious illness can have a dramatic impact on an individual’s ability to handle ADL’s. If you think about how a young child masters specific tasks, losing the ability to do activities of daily living is a bit of a reverse process.
Other Posts that Discuss Activities of Daily Living
2 Comments »
Leave a Reply
Becoming A Grown-up Child
One day in April 2007 my husband and I were the adult kids in our families — we are the only adult children
— and the next day we became what we laughingly call “real grown-ups,” helping first one, then two, and for a while all three of our parents. It’s time to give back, and we do so willingly and happily. However the process is not easy, and it is not free from anxiety and tension. Check out the As Our Parents Age About page to learn more about the mission of this blog.
Copyright and Attribution Info
As Our Parents Age by Marti Weston is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on work at AsOurParentsAge.wordpress.com and AsOurParentsAge.net
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by emailing As Our Parents Age. To learn more about this blog go to the AsYourParentsAge About page.Connect with Marti on LinkedIn
What I’m Currently Reading
Check Out the New Medline Plus Website
Finalist Again!
[...] When people grow older, chronic problems tend to increase as do the number of medications prescribed. For aging seniors, the ability to manage medications independently is an important activity of daily living. For more information on ADL’s see my November 1, 2009 posting, ADL’s or Activities of Daily Living . [...]
[...] it comes to the instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and the activities of daily living (ADLs), the trick is to observe how well these tasks are accomplished and share those observations [...]