Long-Term Care

Long-term care assists individuals who cannot adequately perform their routine activities of daily living. These activities include dressing, bathing, walking, meal preparation, and taking medications ( Batnitzk,A.,Hayes,D.,& Vinall,P.E. 2014,(c. 5.1). These services are typically for clients over the age of 65 years old and is used to promote independence and security for those who cannot take care of their needs due to illness or debility (c.6.1). The type of provider will depend on the type of care a client needs. For instance, some elderly people that need help with food preparations or everyday activities will request to stay at home and have a family member take care of them. This is one way that long-term care is rendered but is unpaid.

Long-term care can be defined as a broad set of paid and unpaid services for people who are mentally or physically disabled, or whose chronic illness places them in need of medical or personal assistance for long periods of time. “It is estimated that there are more than twelve million Americans of all ages whose mix of serious disability and chronic illness places them at the high risk for functional decline, hospitalization, or nursing home placement.” (Benjamin) Several different populations require long-term care services, and the needs of these populations vary. In addition to the elderly, many of the long-term care users are younger persons with physical disabilities; persons with developmental disabilities; and persons with chronic

Long term care facilities are first established under state licensing laws and, in most cases, a granted certification that there is a need for nursing home beds in a specific community. Medical professionals and support services providing care and related functions must also operate in the nursing home under the licensing, regulatory, and standards of practice governing their areas of specialty. In addition, each long-term care facility must establish their own policies and procedures for everyday operation to stay within their operating standards and legal limitations (Brady,

The Continuum of Care is the variety of health care services provided to numerous individuals who are in need of it. All the various Long Term Care providers work as a unit, helping an individual handle their disability with various health care amenities accessible. The Continuum of Care, as stated in Long Term Care: Managing Across the Continuum (2010), is “comprehensive, integrated, and client-oriented”. All the services offered should be client-based and cater to the client’s needs and suitable care. The client’s should be able to obtain services when it is needed from the provider, making it comprehensive. All the different Long Term Care providers should be interconnected between one another, because their goal is all the same. Their goal is to care for the client’s needs. The Continuum of Care consists of: nursing facilities, sub acute care, assisted living, residential care, elderly housing, and a variety of community-based services (Pratt, 2010). All these different providers work together to care for the individuals within the health care industry, creating the continuum and making it integrated. The continuum has many positive attributes, along with many barriers. The range of barriers are: poor transitions from Long Term Care setting to setting for the clients, the continuum is reimbursement-driven, it is fragmented and uncoordinated, it is under staffed with medical professionals, and there are major language and literacy problems.

Federal and state ensured that nursing home residents are covered of legal rights- to include privacy, dignity, money, protection from abuse and exploitation, freedom, self-determination, and freedom to exercise their religious, political and sexual practices (Img. 2).

Long-term care is a variety of services that includes medical and non-medical care to people who have a chronic illness or disability. Long-term care helps meet health or personal needs. Most long-term care is to assist people with support services such as activities of daily living like dressing, bathing, eating, and using the bathroom. Long-term care can be provided at home, in the community, in assisted living or in nursing homes. Long-term care can be given at any age depending on

The Long-Term Care Act was to benefit and work with seniors to improve their overall well-being. The Long-Term Care Homes Act guarantees to help residents living within the long-term care system to receive dependable, high-quality, and safe care for the residents. It is often common for seniors to adjust when placed in long-term care as this is a new and challenging transition for the senior and their families. The commonplace goal is to have a long-term care home environment where residents feel comfortable and at home, where residents are treated with the respect they deserve, and have the proper supports and services that cherish to their particular needs for their overall health and well-being. These services are physical and mental health related services- especially one that relates to the Community Worker Program such as Community and Social Workers that are crucial in a senior’s life often.

In many circumstances, people may move out of long-term care. Those recovering illness or injury may regain independence after they are well. Some may not every be able to live a life without long-term care again. It is noted that 40 percent of people over 65 will need two or more years of long-term care with half of those needing care for more than five years (Grote, 2011). Unfortunately, with today’s aging population, the numbers in the long-term care are most likely to keep increasing instead of transitioning people out. Of the 12 million people who need LTC, 6.6 million are age 65 or older and are likely to be Medicare beneficiaries and entitled to the LTC coverage that Medicare provides (Barton, 2006). That said, not everyone who

Throughout Unit 6 we reviewed the continuum of care in long-term care facilities and its many aspects. The continuum of care, also referred to as the delivery system of health care, is best defined as a full range of long-term care services increasing in level of acuity and complexity from one end to the other (PowerPoint). This delivery system is comprised of three substantial components. These components are the informal system, community based care, and the institutional system.

Long-term care is a result of people having terminal conditions, disabilities, illnesses, injuries, or being elderly. The purpose of long-term care is to provide services to people and to aid people at a time in their lives when they cannot depend on themselves to maintain daily activities. There are many variations of long-term care available – such as home care, adult day care, and independent and assisted living, personal care facilities, nursing homes, and hospice.

to the changing needs of patients regardless of their age, Sultz and Young, 2014. With the help of

Imagine that you are a patient in an hospital in Ontario - you have undergone acute care and are now ready to enter a Long-term care (LTC) facility for additional care. Now imagine that you have entered a complex maze, like the Waterloo County County Corn Maze, only much trickier. Why?

The continuum of institutional long-term care is for patients whose needs are not adequately met in a more community-based setting. It is for individuals who need more dependency. There are two ends of the continuum of institutional long-term care spectrum. On the one end there are the individuals that may only need basic personal or custodial care (Shi & Singh, 2015, p. 399). An example of personal and custodial care can include help with walking, bladder training, or just helping with bathing. On the other end there are the individuals that may need more round the clock care with nursing or specialized services along with the basic needs (Shi & Singh, 2015, p. 399).

Another part of the continuum is health care resources available to the patients. Long-term care does contribute to the management of these resources. Without LTC, these resources would not be in such high demand. According to Medicare.gov, there are many resources that go along with long-term care that need to be used, such as drug and health plans, doctors, hospitals, formulary finder, long-term planning, home health agencies, nursing homes, medical equipment suppliers, dialysis facilities, forms, and publications (Medicare.gov, Resource Locator). These resources will help the patients and their families find the best collaboration of services to meet their needs.

Long term or chronic care includes a much broader range of services than acute care, emphasizing social as care well as medical services. While acute care is usually confined to specialty providers, the providers of long term care are more wide ranging. They include traditional medical providers such as physicians and hospitals, formal community caregivers such as home care agencies, facility providers such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and informal caregivers such as friends or family members.