WHAT IS
LONG TERM CARE? |
| Mental Needs |
| Physical Needs |
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Bathing |
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Dressing |
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Transferring |
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Toileting |
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Feeding |
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Incontinence |
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| Coping With Everyday Living |
| Essentially, long term care is the need for someone else’s help in coping with everyday living either because your body no longer works right, or your brain no longer works right. The extent of need is measured in seven different areas: one for mental, and six for physical. We’ll consider each seperately although they frequently exist simultaneously. |
| Physical Needs |
| The physical needs are measured using six Activities of Daily Living, or ADL’s. They are: bathing, dressing, transferring (changing poitions from sitting, standing, or lying down), toileting, feeding, and dealing with an incontinence (bowel, bladder, or both). If a licensed care practioner (a physician, RN, or master social worker) declares the patient needs assisstance with any two of these for a period of at least 90 days, then the patient is deemed to have a long term care need. They would typically need the physical assisstance of another person whenever attempting these tasks. And they could well need another person’s assisstance in doing many other daily tasks as well. |
| Mental Needs |
| The mental needs are revealed by standard, simple tests for memory and reasoning which are administered by a physician usually in his own office. If a patient is determined to be Cognitively Impaired then they have shown that they are frequently disoriented as to person, place, or time. They need someone else to lead them through everyday sequential tasks such as cooking, or dressing, or even what to do in simple emergencies. A cognivitely impaired person poses a safety problem for himself and others (as in fires left burning on the stove, etc.), and they often get upset by seemingly minor things. A person with a significant cognitive impairment cannot safely be left alone; they need someone to constantly watch out for their well being. |
| Greater Than 90 Days Recovery |
| Many people have had symptoms described above for a short period of time, but recovered from whatever caused the problems. The Federal government’s definition of long term care embodies the idea of either a long, slow recovery of more than 90 days, or no recovery at all. It is this concept of recovery that frequently determines if the problems will be handled as claims for medical insurance or claims for long term care insurance. Essentially, medical insurance reimburses the medical community for helping you recover (medical necessity), or for providing pain relief when you’re dieing. Long term care insurance pays for help in coping with a problem that demands you use someone’s help, but, in many cases, doesn’t cause any pain or threaten life, and there is little or no expectation of recovery (no medical necessity required). Persons with long term care needs frequently have had serious accidents, strokes, or have been victims of diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. |
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