What are activities of daily living (ADLs)?
Activities of daily living (ADLs) are basic self-care tasks such as bathing, dressing, toileting, and eating that assisted living staff use to evaluate a resident's functional ability and determine their care needs and service level.
Assisted living facilities in Greater Hartford assess resident independence using a standard set of self-care tasks known as activities of daily living. These six core ADLs are bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring (moving from bed to chair or standing), eating, and continence management. Staff evaluate how much help a resident needs with each task during intake and ongoing care planning.
ADL assessments determine a resident's care level and directly affect monthly rates and service offerings. A resident who can bathe and dress independently but needs help with toileting and transferring falls into a different care category than someone who requires assistance with all six tasks. Facilities use this structured approach to match staffing resources and support services to each person's actual needs.
Understanding ADL levels helps families and residents know what support is available at a given facility. Most assisted living communities in the Hartford area serve residents who can handle some ADLs independently but need help with others, distinguishing them from memory care or fully dependent populations. The ADL framework provides a common language between families, facilities, and healthcare providers for discussing care requirements.