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What are the Activities of Daily Living and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living?

July 25, 2016
Home care in Newtown PA

Home Care in Langhorne and Newtown PA

Today’s Home Health Care topic is: What are the activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living. These are so important because over 65% of people will need assistance with daily living at some point in their lifetime. So to start out I’m going to list the activities of daily living and then I’ll go back and dig in a little deeper to explain. The activities of daily living include bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, transferring, and ambulating. Bathing and dressing, are pretty basic fundamental needs. But grooming includes things like being able to do oral care so brushing your teeth and flossing and then it also includes doing things like brushing your hair and keeping up with your fingernails and toenails so can you cut and file them by yourself. “Transferring” is referring to moving from one position to another, so going from lying down to sitting up to standing and then kind of the reverse of all those as well. “Ambulating” is walking. So can you walk alone?, do you need the assistance of a cane or a walker?, do you have crutches or are you on a wheelchair? The “instrumental activities” of daily living go along with just kind of running your household a little bit more than taking care of yourself personally. So that means can you make the meals that you can feed yourself?, do you need help with going to the grocery store?, can you manage your medications properly?, and then are you able to keep up with just regular household chores like doing the dishes, laundry, and cleaning? These are the activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living. If you live in the Bucks County or Montgomery County area, we can help your loved one with these needs. Visit us at our Southampton PA office on Street Road or call us to answer more of your questions. Please feel free to give us a call at 215.750.8802   #HomeCare #Southampton #Trevous #Feasterville #Churchville #Bensalem #Langhorne #Newtown #Yardley #WashingtonCrossing #Warrington #Warminster #Doylestown #Levittown #Philadelphia http://goo.gl/FJ2B3M