LONG-TERM SCARE

Lately, the news has been dominated by discussions about health care reform.  For many people, however, the urgent issue is long-term health care.  “What will happen if I end up in a nursing home?  How will I pay for it?  What kind of care will I receive there?  Will it be possible for me to be cared for at home?” When a family member becomes ill, these can be overwhelming issues to face.  We should think about our own individual long-term health care plan.  There are steps that can be taken before a long-term health crisis hits that will make the problem easier to deal with and easier to afford.  The key is addressing it before the crisis hits.  We call it a Life Care Plan because we try to factor in all phases along the elder care continuum.

The Elder Care Continuum

Picture a timeline where the beginning is a person living healthfully at home and end of the timeline is death.  In between, there are different phases, such as needing help with activities of daily living at home, possibly residing in an assisted-living facility and, eventually, moving to a nursing home.  The idea of a life care plan is to stay at the more desirable end of the continuum for as long as possible.  In each individual case, we do not know how the situation will play itself out, but we can put a plan in place to deal with the various phases one may encounter.