Chapter 16
An act or failure to act within a relationship of trust that harms or causes distress to an older adult, including physical, emotional, sexual, or financial abuse and neglect.
Elder abuse
In Erikson’s theory of aging, accepting one’s life as meaningful and worthwhile, including its successes, disappointments, and limitations.
Integrity
Describing the brain’s ability to adapt and reorganize its connections in response to learning, experience, or injury.
Neuroplastic
Sudden, intense emotional or behavioral responses—such as crying, anger, fear, or agitation—when a person with cognitive impairment becomes overwhelmed.
Catastrophic reactions
A sudden disturbance in attention, awareness, and thinking that fluctuates throughout the day, often caused by illness, medications, or another physical problem.
Delirium
The use of multiple medications by one person, commonly defined as five or more, which can increase the risk of interactions and adverse effects.
Polypharmacy
Stereotypes, prejudice, or discrimination directed toward people because of their age.
Ageism
In dementia, changes or decline in emotional expression, responsiveness, and familiar personality characteristics.
Affective loss
Evaluation of a person’s ability to perform everyday activities, such as bathing, dressing, preparing meals, managing medications, and handling finances.
Functional assessment
A decline in the ability to initiate, plan, organize, and carry out purposeful activities, including familiar daily tasks.
Conative loss
The ongoing process of biological, psychological, and social change as a person grows older.
Aging
Difficulty remembering information or experiences that a person previously could recall; its severity and causes vary.
Memory loss
Fear of aging or of older adults.
Gerontophobia
A progressive brain disease that gradually impairs memory, thinking, behavior, and everyday functioning; it is the most common cause of dementia.
Alzheimer's disease (AD)
Increased confusion, restlessness, anxiety, or agitation in the late afternoon or evening, particularly in people with dementia; also called sundowning.
Sundown syndrome
Evaluation of a person’s ability to perform everyday activities, such as bathing, dressing, preparing meals, managing medications, and handling finances.
Functional assessment
Persistent difficulty discarding possessions, resulting in accumulation that can clutter living spaces and interfere with their safe or intended use.
Difficulty learning, retaining, or recalling information and experiences.
Memory loss
A decline in memory, reasoning, or other thinking abilities severe enough to interfere with daily life; it is not a normal part of aging.
Dementia
Difficulty thinking clearly, understanding a situation, or recognizing people, places, or time.
Confusion
Dementia caused by conditions that damage the brain’s blood vessels or disrupt blood flow, such as strokes.
Vascular dementia