Habilitation - Process of providing specific learning experiences for those persons with disabilities who have been isolated from such experiences so they can become aware of and develop their abilities and potentials. [Click Here To Return To List]

Halo - A metal ring used for patients with spinal cord injuries of the neck which encircles the patient's head to allow for proper alignment of the neck and spinal cords. [Click Here To Return To List]

Handicap - Describes a condition or barrier imposed by society, the environment, or by one's own self that limits or prevents the fulfillment of a role that is normal, depending on age, sex, and social and cultural factors, for the individual. Handicap can be used when citing laws and situations but should not be used to describe a disability. Not a synonym for disability. [Click Here To Return To List]

Hard of Hearing - Mild to moderate hearing loss that may or may not be corrected with amplification. [Click Here To Return To List]

Head Injury - Refers to an injury of the head and/or brain, including lacerations and contusions of the head, scalp and/or forehead. See Brain Injury. [Click Here To Return To List]

Health Insurance - See Terms and Definitions related to Insurance. [Click Here To Return To List]

Hearing Impaired - Generic term preferred by some individuals to refer to any degree of hearing loss from mild to profound. It includes both hard of hearing and deaf. [Click Here To Return To List]

Hematoma - The collection of blood in tissues or space following rupture of a blood vessel. Regarding Brain:

Epidural - Outside the brain and its fibrous covering, the dura, but under the skull.

Subdural - Between the brain and its fibrous covering (dura).

Intracerebral - In the brain tissue.

Subarachnoid - Around the surfaces of the brain, between the dura and arachnoid membranes. [Click Here To Return To List]

Hemianopsia Hemianopia - Visual field cut. Blindness for one half of the field of vision. This is not the right or left eye, but the rights or left half of vision in each eye. [Click Here To Return To List]

Hemiplegia - Paralysis of one side of the body as a result of injury to neurons carrying signals to muscles from the motor areas of the brain. [Click Here To Return To List]

Hemiparesis - Weakness of one side of the body. [Click Here To Return To List]

Hemorrhage - Bleeding that occurs following damage to blood vessels. Bleeding may occur within the brain when blood vessels in the brain are damaged. See Hematoma. [Click Here To Return To List]

High Level Cognitive Processes - Refers to judgement, comprehension of problems, deductive and inductive reasoning, problem-solving and planning. [Click Here To Return To List]

Home-care Program - See Discharge: Options for Rehabilitation Facilities. [Click Here To Return To List]

Human Services - Services provided for people to enable them to deal with their person environment in such a way that they can gain control over their own destinies and exercise freedom of choice in their lives. [Click Here To Return To List]

Human Services Delivery System - The organizational structure by which necessary services are provided to those people who need them and includes health care, education, income maintenance, and manpower services. [Click Here To Return To List]

Hydrocephalus - Enlargement of fluid-filled cavities in the brain, not due to brain atrophy. [Click Here To Return To List]

Hypoxemia - An abnormally low level of oxygen in the blood. When a patient's arterial blood sample is measured and a low level of oxygen is noted it is more appropriate to refer to hypoxemia rather than hypoxia. Determination of hypoxia involves a much more sophisticated evaluation of the patient. [Click Here To Return To List]

Hypoxia - Insufficient oxygen reaching the tissues of the body. [Click Here To Return To List]