Terminology

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This alphabetical guide is a quick reference to terms and acronyms commonly used by aged care services.

A

ABD
Acquired Brain Damage

ABI
Acquired Brain Injury

ABS
Australian Bureau of Statistics

ACAS
Aged Care Assessment Services

ACAT
Aged Care Assessment Team

ACC
Attendant Care Coalition

Acquired Brain Injury (ABI)
Acquired brain injury is injury to the brain which results in deterioration in cognitive, physical, emotional or independent functioning. Acquired brain injury can occur as a result of trauma, hypoxia, infection, tumour, substance abuse, degenerative neurological disease or stroke. These impairments to cognitive abilities or physical functioning may be either temporary or permanent and cause partial or total disability or psychosocial maladjustment.

ADEC
Action on Disabilities Within Ethnic Communities

ADASS
Adult Day Activity Support Services

ALRC
Australian Law Reform Commission

ARBIAS
Alcohol Related Brain Injury Assessment Accommodation and Support

ARPA
Australian Retired Persons Association

ATSS
Adult Training Support Services

B

BIST
Behaviour Intervention Support Team

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Brokerage
Brokerage refers to the purchase of services in addition to those normally available through the mainstream Home and Community Care (HACC) Program. Services may be purchased from mainstream HACC providers as deemed appropriate where such provision assists people to live independently within the community and is consistent with the aims and objectives of the HACC Program. Services, other than those funded under the HACC Program, may also use the brokerage approach.

C

Care Management
Care management refers to the development of care plans, initiation and monitoring of service provision, and consulting with consumers and carers about whether the care plan is effectively meeting their needs.

Carer
A carer is a family member or friend who cares for a person who is aged and frail or has a disability or chronic illness. (Different funding bodies have different definitions and requirements).

CACP
Community Aged Care Packages

CAD
Central Activities District

CADMS
Cognitive, Assessment and Dementia Management Service (replaced in October 1998 by CDAMS)

CDAMS
Cognitive, Dementia and Memory Service

CAFW
Child and Family Welfare

CAM
Care Aggregate Model

CCT
Compulsory Competitive Tendering

CEO
Chief Executive Officer

CERT
Community Emergency Response Team

CHASP
Community Health Accreditation Standards Program

CHP
Community Health Program

CIDA
Council of Intellectual Disabilities Agencies

CO-AS-IT
Italian Assistance Association

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Community Connection Service
The Victorian Community Connection Service will be established as an outreach and referral service, targeting vulnerable people living in rooming houses, caravan parks, hotels, public housing and Supported Residential Services. The service will be based on existing successful initiatives including the Commonwealth Assistance with Care and Housing for the Aged (ACHA) Program, the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program Boarding House Pilot Project and the Mental Health Outreach Program.

COTA
Council on the Ageing (exists at a State and National level)

CSDA
Commonwealth Services Delivery Agency

CSDA
Commonwealth State Disability Agreement

D

DACA
Dutch Australian Community Action

DARE
Disability Action Rights and Equality

DEAC
Disability Employment Action Centre

Dementia
Dementia is a syndrome due to disease of the brain, such as Alzheimer's disease, cerebrovascular disease and in other conditions primarily or secondarily affecting the brain. It is usually of a chronic or progressive nature.

Common symptomology or behavioural changes of a dementing illness include:

• Memory loss
• Disorientation
• Wandering
• Language difficulties
• Impaired comprehension, reasoning and judgement
• Failure to recognise people or objects
• Loss of ability to initiate and learn
• Changes in mood
• Personality changes (such as paranoia)
• Night-time wakefulness
• Gradual failure to perform daily living tasks
• Hallucinations or delusions
• Challenging behaviour such as verbal and physical aggression, resistance to care, suspicion, agitation and repetitive acts, inappropriate sexual behaviour, stealing and hiding things, use of abusive or obscene language.

At present, little can be done to improve the course of the majority of dementing illnesses, however, the widely held perception that dementia cannot be prevented or treated is changing. Therapeutic interventions that provide symptomatic treatment, modify risk factors and manage the behavioural manifestations of the illness are becoming increasingly available and research into the causes of and cures for dementing illnesses is burgeoning world-wide.

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DPIB
Disabled Persons' Information Bureau

DRC
Disability Resource Centre

DRG
Diagnosis Related Group

DSS
Department of Social Security

DSP
Disability Support Pensioners

DVA
Department of Veterans Affairs

E

ECCV
Ethnic Community Council of Victoria

EFT
Effective/Equivalent Full Time

Elder Abuse
Elder abuse is neglect or harm to an older person resulting in physical, psychological, sexual or material (financial) injury, caused by the behaviour of a person with whom the older person has a relationship implying trust.

F

F&SA
Funding and Service Agreement

FDP
Financially Disadvantaged Person

G

GAB
Guardianship and Administration Board

GP
General Practitioner

H

HACCAP
Home and Community Care Accreditation Process

HCC
Health Care Cardholder

Healthstreams
Healthstreams is an approach used by the Victorian Government in the delivery of health services in small rural communities. Using more flexible funding for health services, Healthstreams is enabling rural agencies to deliver a broader range of services than was ever possible before.

Healthy Ageing
Healthy Ageing is an Australian outlook on life which:

• Recognises that growing older is a part of living
• Recognises the interdependence of generations
• Recognises that everyone has a responsibility to be fair in their demands on other generations
• Fosters a positive attitude throughout life to growing older
• Eliminates age as a reason to exclude any person from participating fully in community life
• Promotes a commitment to activities which enhance well-being and health, choice and independence and quality of life for all ages
• Encourages communities to value and listen to older people and to cater for the diverse preferences, motivations, characteristics and circumstances of older Australians in a variety of ways

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Home and Community Care Program
Home and Community Care (HACC) is a joint Commonwealth/State Government program which provides services to support frail elderly people, younger people with disabilities and their carers and families living at home or in the community.

HACC offers a comprehensive range of integrated, support services which enable people to stay in the community and live as independently as possible, where they might have felt their only choice was to move into a hostel, nursing home or other supported residential facility.

HACC services are delivered by local governments, community and voluntary organisations.

Homeless People
A homeless person is a person without a conventional home who lacks most of the economic and social supports that a home normally affords; often cut off from the support of relatives and friends. They have few independent resources and often no immediate means and in many cases little prospect for self support in the future.

HRIS
Human Resources Information System

I

IAT
Independent Assessment Team

ID
Intellectual Disability

IDS
Intellectual Disability Services

IRSED
Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage

ISAMS
Interim Service Agreement Monitoring System

IT
Information Technology

L

LGA
Local Government Area

LIFE
Leaders in Fitness Education

Linkages
Linkages projects are funded through the Home and Community Care (HACC) Program (a joint Commonwealth/Victorian government initiative) to provide individually tailored packages of care to people with complex needs so that they can continue to live independently in the community. Some of the principal activities performed by Linkages services are the provision of care management and brokerage services to eligible clients.

LIV
Law Institute Victoria

M

MECWA
Malvern Elderly Citizens Welfare Association

MHPB
Metropolitan Hospitals Planning Board

MND
Motor Neurone Disease

MPS
Multi Purpose Services

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Multi-Purpose Service
A Multi-Purpose Service (MPS) is a service delivery model that consists of a comprehensive range of services meeting the aged and health care needs of a community. They are intended to manage a diverse range of Commonwealth and State aged care, hospital and other health care funds. Multi Purpose Service organisations are established in remote or isolated rural communities which are unable to maintain comprehensive aged care, hospital and other community services, or are unwilling to continue with separate health agencies that perhaps duplicate services or reduce the capacity of these separate services to meet changing community health needs.

N

NAIDOC
National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee

NALAG
National Association for Loss and Grief

NARI
National Ageing Research Institute

NESB
Non-English Speaking Background

O

OBF
Output Based Funding

OPA
Office of the Public Advocate

OPAC
Older Persons Action Centre

OTFE
Office of Training and Further Education

OWN
Older Women's Network

P

PADP
Program of Aids for Disabled People

PCAI
Personal Care Assessment Indicator

PGAT
Psychogeriatric Assessment Team

PHACS
Primary Health and Community Services

PIPS
People in Pain Support

Positive Ageing
Positive ageing is a concept which recognises that growing older is a continuous life process and that becoming "old" is not a distinct event, or a completely separate stage of life.

For most people older age is characterised by emotional, physical and mental well-being. The idea of ageing being a time of withdrawal and increasing dependency does not reflect how most older people feel about themselves or about life.

Fostering and developing intergenerational relationships as a cornerstone of a caring and supportive society is also an important notion of positive ageing. The collective community and political responsibility to care for the communities most vulnerable members is another.

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Q

QUADS
Quality Assurance & Development Strategy

R

RCI
Residential Classification Index

RDNS
Royal District Nursing Service

Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation is proactive and goal-oriented. It targets people with loss of function or ability from any cause, either congenital or acquired, and its aim is to improve function and/or prevent deterioration of function to bring about the highest possible level of independence, physically, psychologically, socially and economically.

It is always and essentially the provision of a coordinated program by a specialist team of health professionals, and never simply a series of treatment episodes. It involves a combined and coordinated use of medical, nursing and allied health skills, along with social, educational and vocational services, to provide individual assessment, treatment, regular review, discharge planning and follow-up.

Rehabilitation is concerned not only with physical recovery but also with reintegration (or integration) of the person into the community, although these two facets are part of the one process. For some clients, rehabilitation will constitute a single episode. Others will require ongoing, low-intensity or episodic services consisting, for instance, of bursts of more intensive rehabilitation and on-going less intensive services to maintain optimal function and independence.

RHTA
Rooming House Tenants' Association

Rooming House
Rooming house means a building in which there is one or more rooms available for occupancy on payment of rent:

• In which the total number of people who may occupy those rooms is not less than four; or
• In respect of which a declaration under section 19 is in force. (Section 19 states that the "Minister may declare a building to be a rooming house

(1) An owner of a building -
(a) in which there is one or more rooms available for occupancy or payment of rent; and
(b) in which the total number of people who may occupy the rooms is less than 4 - may apply to the Minister for a declaration that the building is a rooming house for the purposes of this Act
(2) The Minister, by notice published in the Government Gazette, may declare that building to be a rooming house for the purpose of this Act."

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RREF
Relative Resource Equity Formula

RPL
Recognition of Prior Learning

S

SAAP
Supported Accommodation Assistance Program

SAM
Standard Aggregated Model

SAMS
Service Agreement Management System

SIDS
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Specialist Clinics
The Victorian government is committed to the development of a statewide system of specialist health services for older people and those with chronic conditions which impair quality of life and/or independence. To achieve this aim, a range of sub-acute inpatient and ambulatory care services have been identified and are being developed or expanded. These include rehabilitation, geriatric medical care services and palliative care services provided in both hospital settings, community centres and individual homes.

To date six specialist clinical services have been identified for further development and enhancement. These are: Cognitive, Dementia and Memory Clinics, Community Rehabilitation Clinics, Continence Clinics, Geriodontal Clinics, Falls and Mobility Clinics and Pain Management Clinics.

SSR/LTM
Slow Stream Rehabilitation / Long Term Maintenance

SRS
Supported Residential Service

Supported Residential Service
A Supported Residential Service is a premises where accommodation and special or personal care are provided or offered for persons (other than members of the family or the proprietor of the premises) for a fee or reward but does not include a hostel. Special or personal care includes the provision of assistance:

• With bathing, showering, personal hygiene, toileting, dressing, meals
• To anyone with a mobility difficulty
• To anyone needing supervision or assistance in dispensing medicine
• To anyone needing substantial emotional support
• To anyone needing supervision or assistance

T

TAC
Transport Accident Commission

TADAS
Travellers' Aid Disability Access Service

U

UBF
Unit Based Funding

V

VCCAV
Victorian Community Council Against Violence

VACCHOI
Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation Inc

VACSAI
Victorian Aboriginal Community Services Association Inc

VCOD
Victorian Council of Deaf People

VCHA
Victorian Community Health Association

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VCHV
Victorian Consumer Health Voice

VCOSS
Victorian Council of Social Service

VHA
Victorian Healthcare Association

VICPACS
Victorian Personal Assistance Call Service or Victorian Personal Alarm Systems (this is the more recent terminology)

VICSERV
Psychiatric Disability Services of Victoria Inc

Victorian Personal Assistance Call Service
The Victorian Personal Assistance Call Service (VICPACS) is a 24-hour telephone monitoring and personal response service for older people and younger people with disabilities living at home and at risk of experiencing a critical event or critical episode.

VIDS
Victorian Infectious Diseases Service

VLA
Victoria Legal Aid

VRDCU
Victorian Rural Division Coordination Unit

W

WHO
World Health Organisation

WIRE
Women's Information and Referral Exchange

WRESA
Western Port Residential Association Inc

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