The nursing home and assisted living industry employ the term "activities of daily living" or (ADL) to describe a patient's personal functioning level. The term describes a professional assessment of a patient's ability to perform daily tasks or provide necessities of independent living. A caregiver will evaluate their ability to successfully engage in personal hygiene, their continence level, ability to dress and undress themselves, ability to feed themselves, use a toilet and get into and out of a bed or chair by themselves. Social workers often use the activities of daily living assessment to determine a patients custodial care needs, to isolate the best method to meeting those needs and finally to track the provision of care on an ongoing basis.