Articles
You probably have insurance for your home, car and health to protect yourself against unexpected disasters. But if you’re like most Americans, you probably haven’t invested in long-term health care insurance.
Yet no other life event can be as devastating to an elderly person’s lifestyle, finances and security as needing long term care. It drastically alters or completely eliminates the three principal retirement dreams most of us look forward to:
• Remaining independent in our homes without intervention from others
• Maintaining good health and receiving adequate health care
• Having enough money for everyday needs and not outliving assets and income
According to some sources, 60% of us will need long term care sometime during our lives. When we don’t plan for it, we leave ourselves vulnerable. Lack of preparation also creates many adverse circumstances for both the older person and caregiver, including sacrifices of time, money, and emotional and physical health.
Because of changing demographics and potential changes in government funding, the current generation—more than ever—needs to plan for long term care before the elder years are upon them.
What Is Long Term Care?
The need for long term care arises when an individual requires, from someone else, assistance with medical care, daily living activities, comfort, supervision or advice as the result of an accident, disease process, or frailty. Such conditions may require help with the ability to move about, dress, bathe, eat, use a toilet, medicate, and avoid incontinence. Long term care in the form of supervision or confinement is also needed when people are cognitively impaired from stroke, mental retardation, depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease and require help to clean the house, prepare meals, shop for food, pay bills, visit the doctor and answer the phone. Most long term care is provided at home by family members.
For seniors, the terms “long term care” and “eldercare” are synonymous. For younger people, “long term care” is more appropriate.
Prepare Now For Elder Care You Or Your Loved Ones Will Need Later On
Unfortunately, long-term care is very complicated. The process of finding and security care systems and providers is frustrating and time-consuming; there’s no single source for help and no simple phone call to solve all problems. For this reason, planning for care requires a great deal of prior knowledge if you want to avoid operating in crisis mode when the need for care suddenly arises.
However, knowledge of long term care systems is not enough. Because the need for care can develop suddenly, at any time, you must take action now by:
• Determining the care settings and services you or a loved one most likely would want.
• Providing funding for paying the cost of care, especially when government support programs are lacking or require sacrifice of assets.
• Completing a survey to determine necessary financial and legal arrangements to be made.
These Four Steps Will Help You Be Ready
We have defined four crucial steps necessary to adequately plan for long term care.
STEP 1-Understand the nature of care, care settings, and government programs
Understand the 12 different living arrangements and four different settings under which care is provided. In addition, understand what government will and will not provide: most of what we think we know is based on misconceptions. For example, government programs are limited. According to research by the National Care Planning Council (www.longtermcarelink.net), only 16% of all long-term care services are provided by government programs. The other 84% is provided free of charge by family members, friends, charity, church groups or volunteers or paid for by private funds.
STEP 2-Funding the cost of long term care
Some people fund long term care by purchasing insurance (less than 2% of the American public and only 9% of seniors) or arranging for reverse mortgages. These work for some but not all people, and there are many other funding strategies that you should explore.
STEP 3-Using long term care professionals
For the majority of Americans, it’s most cost effective to hire a professional to help you deal with long term care issues. This strategy also reduces stress and frees up time. Another benefit of using professional help, such as a care manager, elder law attorney or mediator, is that it helps alleviate or avoid family conflicts that often arise as a result of care giving.
Hiring professional advisers or providers to help with long term care is no different than using professionals to help with other complex issues such as car repairs or legal problems. With their education and training, long term care professionals also bring experience that comes from their hands-on dealing with countless care giving challenges.
STEP 4-Creating a personal care plan and choosing a care coordinator
Gathering knowledge about resources and care systems, while necessary, isn’t enough: The fourth step in the planning process is to hold a planning meeting and create a written care plan that instructs caregivers and others who will be involved with care and to which all parties agree. To be comprehensive, it should describe the role of family members, friends, and advisors and include, among other items, a personal document locator and a reference guide listing all long term care services. Finally, the document should designate a care coordinator—someone who is not a caregiver but works with caregivers and the person needing care. Having this document on hand will reduce stress, costs, conflict, and time devoted to the issue.
By undertaking all these steps, the challenge of dealing with long term care will become more manageable and less stressful.
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RESOURCES
This article is a synopsis of the National Care Planning Council’s new book, The 4 steps of Long Term Care Planning.
