Social Security in the United States is a social insurance program funded through dedicated payroll taxes called Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). Tax deposits are formally entrusted toFederal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, or Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund or the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund. The main part of the program is sometimes abbreviated OASDI (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) or RSDI (Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance). When initially signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, the term Social Security covered unemployment insurance as well. The term, in everyday speech, is used only to refer to the benefits for retirement, disability, survivorship, and death, which are the four main benefits provided by traditional private-sector pension plans. In 2004 the U.S. Social Security system paid out almost $500 billion in benefits. By dollars paid, the U.S. Social Security program is the largest government program in the world and the single greatest expense in the federal budget, with 20.9% for social security and 20.4% for Medicare. To apply for benefits visit the official site of the social security administration at www.ssa.gov.

Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are either age 65 and over, or who meet other special criteria. It was originally signed into law on July 30, 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson as amendments to Social Security legislation. At the bill-signing ceremony President Johnson enrolled former President Harry S. Truman as the first Medicare beneficiary and presented him with the first Medicare card.  Visit www.Medicare.gov, a consumer beneficiary Website, that provides access to information about Medicare, Medicare health plans, contact and enrollment information.

Medicaid is the United States health program for individuals and families with low incomes and resources. It is an entitlement program that is jointly funded by the states and federal government, and is managed by the states. Among the groups of people served by Medicaid are eligible low-income parents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities. Medicaid is the largest source of funding for medical and health-related services for people with limited income.  For more information regarding Medicaid visit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.  To apply on line in Florida, go to the Department of Children and Family Services Florida ACCESS page.  Click here to find an ACCESS location and receive assistance with your application.  An appointment may be necessary prior to visit.

Home Care is health care provided in the patient's home by healthcare professionals or by family and friends (also known as caregivers). Often, the term home care is used to distinguish non-medical care or custodial care, which is care that is provided by persons who are not nurses, doctors, or other licensed medical personnel, whereas the term home health care, refers to care that is provided by licensed personnel. Visit our Membership page to find a Home Care Provider near you.

The need to assess functions such as mobility in patients is increasingly recognized.  Some elderly persons develop symptoms or behaviors in response to a fall. They may express an enhanced or increased fear of falling that may result in emotional, psychological or social changes.  Many Durable Medical Equipment providers are dedicated to helping individuals regain mobility. They may work with your doctor to identify mobility needs, coordinate Medicare or insurance benefits and determine the best mobility solution for you.

A hearing impairment or hearing loss is a full or partial decrease in the ability to detect or understand sounds. Caused by a wide range of biological and environmental factors, loss of hearing can happen to any organism that perceives sound.  Visual impairment or vision impairment is vision loss that constitutes a significant limitation of visual capability resulting from disease, trauma, or a congenital or degenerative condition that cannot be corrected by conventional means, including refractive correction, medication, or surgery.  See our Membership page to learn of programs that provide specialized telecommunications equipment to qualified residents of Florida who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf /blind, or speech impaired.

The main focus of Independent Living is not having to move from place to place, and being familiar with the community, allowing the individual to "age in place". Housing is often fitted with safety precautions such as call buttons and amenities such as high speed cable.  Aging in Place should reduce forced relocation to a different living arrangement and produce more favorable outcomes.

Assisted Living or Assisted Living Facilities (ALF) usually refers to a non-institutionalized facility that is used by people who are not able to live on their own, but do not yet need the level of continuous nursing care that a nursing home offers. Nursing homes provide help for people who can not live on their own at all. Assisted living homes are used by people who are partly independent, but need some help on a few things. Such as bathing, dressing, chores, and cooking.  ALF's can be anywhere from a small residential house for 3 residents up to very large facilities providing services to hundreds of residents.

Long-term care (LTC) is a variety of services which help meet both the medical and non-medical need of people with a chronic illness or disability who cannot care for themselves for long periods of time.  It is common for long-term care to provide custodial and non-skilled care, such as assisting with normal daily tasks like dressing, bathing, and using the bathroom. Long-term care may also include medical care that most people do for themselves, such as diabetes monitoring. Long-term care can be provided at home, in the community, in assisted living or in nursing homes. Long-term care may be needed by people of any age, even though it is a common need for senior citizens.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates that about nine million men and women over the age of 65 in the US will need long-term care in 2006. By 2020, 12 million older Americans will need long-term care. It is anticipated that most will be cared for at home; family and friends are the sole caregivers for 70 percent of the elderly.

Dementia is the progressive decline in cognitive function due to damage or disease in the brain beyond what might be expected from normal aging. Although dementia is far more common in the geriatric population, it may occur in any stage of adulthood. This age cutoff is defining, as similar sets of symptoms due to organic brain dysfunction are given different names in populations younger than adulthood (see, for instance, developmental disorders).  In dementia, affected areas in cognition may be memory, attention, language, and problem solving. Higher mental functions are affected first in the process. Especially in the later stages of the condition, affected persons may be disoriented in time (not knowing what day of the week, day of the month, month, or even what year it is), in place (not knowing where they are), and in person (not knowing who they are).  Alzheimer's disease (AD), also called Alzheimer disease or simply Alzheimer's, is the most common cause of dementia, afflicting 24 million people worldwide. Alzheimer's is a progressive and terminal disease for which there is currently no cure. In its most common form, it occurs in people over 65 years old (although a less-prevalent early onset form also exists). It usually begins many years before it is eventually diagnosed. In its early stages, short-term memory loss is the clearest symptom: this leads to confusion, anger, mood swings, language breakdown, long-term memory loss, and the general withdrawal of the sufferer as his or her senses decline. Gradually the sufferer loses minor, and then major bodily functions, until death occurs. Although the symptoms are common, people commonly experience them in a unique way. The duration of the disease is estimated as being between 5 and 20 years. Because of the length of the disease and the inability of the patient to manage themselves, Alzheimer's disease is known for placing a high burden on caregivers.  To learn of support for those patients the caregivers of those suffering from Alzheimer's and other related Dementias visit our Membership page.

In general usage, a financial plan can be a budget, a plan for spending and saving future income. This plan allocates future income to various types of expenses, such as rent or utilities, and also reserves some income for short-term and long-term savings. A financial plan can also be an investment plan, which allocates savings to various assets or projects expected to produce future income, such as a new business or product line, shares in an existing business, or real estate.

A reverse mortgage is a loan available to seniors (62 and over), and is used to release the home equity in the property as one lump sum or multiple payments. The homeowner's obligation to repay the loan is deferred until the owner dies, the home is sold, or the owner leaves (e.g., into aged care).

Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium. Insurer is the company that sells the insurance. Insurance rate is a factor used to determine the amount, called the premium, to be charged for a certain amount of insurance coverage. The most common forms of insurance in the elderly are long term care insurance and Medicare Advantage programs.

Crime and the fear of crime create special problems for the elderly. Crime prevention is everyone's responsibility, not just a job for law enforcement. Seniors can learn how to protect themselves from crime by following simple, commonsense suggestions.  For the Senior programs and tips for the Central Florida area, visit Orange County Sheriff's Office website.

Care management is a service that provides assistance to individuals when they are faced with problems they are unable to resolve on their own. Most care managers have backgrounds in social work or nursing, or another human service such as counseling, gerontology, speech, physical or occupational therapy. Most, however, are Social Workers, who usually have the most appropriate training and education for the broad array of psycho-social issues facing older adults.  In the United States there is a National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers (NAPGCM). There are almost 2000 individuals who are members of the association. Additional information is available on www.caremanager.org.

In the common law, a will or testament is a document by which a person (the testator) regulates the rights of others over his or her property or family after death.  A living will, also called will to live, is one type of advance health directive, or advance health care directive. It is often accompanied by a specific type of power of attorney or health care proxy. These are legal instruments that are usually witnessed or notarized. In common law legal systems, a trust is an arrangement whereby money or property is managed by one person (or persons, or organizations) for the benefit of another but is owned by the 'Trust'.  There are many different types of trusts such as (but not limited to): land trusts, supplemental needs trusts, and income trusts.

A power of attorney (POA) or letter of attorney in common law systems or mandate in civil law systems is an authorization to act on someone else's behalf in a legal or business matter.

An Advanced Medical Directive is a medical guideline which pertains to treatment preferences, including the designation of a surrogate decision-maker in the event that a patient should become unable to make medical decisions on their own behalf. These generally fall into three categories: living will, power of attorney, and health care proxy.

A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority (and the corresponding duty) to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability. Courts generally have the power to appoint a guardian for an individual in need of special protection.  For more information on Guardianship, visit the Central Florida Chapter of the Florida State Guardianship Association.

A special needs trust is created to ensure that beneficiaries who are disabled or mentally ill can enjoy the use of property which is intended to be held for their benefit. In addition to personal planning reasons for such a trust (the person may lack the mental capacity to handle their financial affairs) there may be fiscal advantages to the use of a trust. Such trusts may also avoid beneficiaries losing access to essential government benefits.

In everyday language depression refers to any downturn in mood, which may be relatively transitory and perhaps due to something trivial. This is differentiated from Clinical depression which is marked by symptoms that last two weeks or more and are so severe that they interfere with daily living.In the field of psychiatry the word depression can also have this meaning but more specifically refers to a mental illness when it has reached a severity and duration to warrant a diagnosis.

Substance abuse refers to the overindulgence in and dependence of a drug or other chemical leading to effects that are detrimental to the individual's physical and mental health, or the welfare of others. The disorder is characterized by a pattern of continued pathological use of a medication, non-medically indicated drug or toxin, that results in repeated adverse social consequences related to drug use, such as failure to meet work, family, or school obligations, interpersonal conflicts, or legal problems. 

Elder abuse is often defined as a single, or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person. This definition was established by Action on Elder Abuse in the UK, but was then subsequently adopted by the World Health Organization and has, at its core, the concept that such abuse is defined by the 'expectation of trust' of the older person toward their abuser.  In 2006 the United Nations designated June 15th as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) and an increasing number of events are held across the globe on this day to raise awareness of elder abuse, and highlight ways to challenge such abuse.

Palliative care is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than providing a cure. The goal is to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve quality of life for people facing serious, complex illness. Non-hospice palliative care is not dependent on prognosis and is offered in conjunction with curative and all other appropriate forms of medical treatment. It should not be confused with hospice care which delivers palliative care to those at the end of life.

Many funeral directors, cemeteries, and other providers develop and market preneed plans. By pre-planning your funeral, you can: make all the arrangements during a time of peace and not leave them to your family during their time of grief, make your wishes known, control the cost of your funeral and protect from inflation, ensure that personal records are organized and easy for your survivors to locate, protect your insurance so that it provides for your survivors and not for funeral expenses and provide protection in case the need arises before it is expected.

Outpatient rehabilitation programs meet the needs of patients requiring physical, occupational and/or speech therapies. The goal is to integrate services to improve the functional level of each patient. Outpatient rehabilitation services focus on developing a patient's optimal level of function and community integration. Many Outpatient Rehabilitation Companies will provide rehab inside the patients home, diverting them from having to travel to and from a rehab center.

A physician, medical practitioner or medical doctor is a person who practices medicine and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and injury. This is accomplished through a detailed knowledge of anatomy, physiology, diseases and treatment - the science of medicine - and its applied practice - the art or craft of medicine.

Medical equipment is designed to aid in the diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of medical conditions. These devices are usually designed with rigorous safety standards.

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