A Long-Term Care (LTC) Plan is something that I created for my future. I saw both of my parents, while basically healthy, too proud in their 80’s to accept any support from me or their friends. I write this post to share that being pro-active in creating your own LTC Plan can help improve and impact the quality of life in your later years.
A LTC Plan is comprised of a range of custodial services and support provided for daily living if you are unable to perform daily activities on your own. The monitoring of these daily activities is an essential part of the LTC plan and is broken down into 2 categories:
Activities of Daily Living - ADL
Instrumental Activities of Daily Living - IADL
Care providers work with ADLs and IADLs and measure whether assistance is required and how much assistance is needed.
A LTC Plan is designed to help you live as independently as possible, for as long as possible. To help you thrive and enjoy life and not just go through the motions of your daily activities.
Life is complicated. As the years go by you may find that your old support networks are no longer available.
That’s why a LTC Plan is so important for your future.
Activities of Daily Living - the building blocks for a LTC Plan
The long-term care community has categorized 5 basic activities that most people need to do every day without assistance, entitled: “Activities of Daily Living” (ADL).
They are self-care tasks that an individual does on a day-to-day basis:
Personal Hygiene
Dressing
Eating
Moving from one place to another
Managing Continence
As you grow older, some of the above activities may become more difficult to accomplish independently and take more time to complete:
you may start to see this occurring and become frustrated or
your friends/family might be the ones who first notice those small changes
Instrumental Activities of Daily Living - more complex tasks that help an individual flourish as a person in the community
These Instrumental “Activities of Daily Living” (IADL) are more complex and reflect a person’s ability to live independently. They are activities that are not essential to basic self-care and independent living, but add quality to life:
Financial Management
Vehicle Transportation
Shopping
Using Communication Devices
Administering Medication
Household Chores/Maintenance
When you start to see a decline in your own performance with some of these activities it can be scary not knowing the reasons why; they can run the gamut from:
general old age
senility
mental fog brought on by medications and/or a failing brain, and
an increasing downfall from chronic illness or disability
If it’s a family member/friend who begins to notice a decline in your life be it financially, socially or even personally, it might be an uncomfortable conversation for them to start.
With any LTC Plan, staying connected with your Care Coordinator, Primary Care Doctor and Friends/Family is essential.
A Care Coordinator is a licensed healthcare professional who can assess your needs, review your ADLs and IADLs, develop an individualized plan of care and help you arrange for long-term care services.
Let your Primary Care Doctor know you have a LTC Plan in place and connect them with your Care Coordinator. Keep your doctor in the loop concerning any changes you see in your ADLs and IADLs.
You should also include a few close friends/family; let them know you want to be alerted to any changes that they might see with your ADLs and IADLs. Encourage them to let you know of any life style/health changes they see in your daily activities.
Take control of your ADLs and IADLs
They can be important indicators not to be ignored.
No more hiding behind insecurities or disguising imperfections if you want the monitoring of your daily activities to tell a story of how your health is really progressing.
Share with your doctor any changes you are feeling; don’t live in denial that they are insignificant. We are living into our 80’s and 90’s and beyond and want those years to be enjoyable.
Through investing the time now to create your own LTC plan while you are younger and healthier, you will be giving yourself the gift of maintaining more control over your finances and quality of life.
If you’ve gained some insight into learning how to be more pro-active with LTC Planning please share this post with friends/family who might benefit from reading it.
Listed below are links to some of my earlier posts on LTC Insurance & Planning.
Get approved for LTC Insurance - before Gene Testing is required.
Why should I look at LTC Insurance; its expensive?
The Best Ages to Apply for Long-Term Care Insurance.
Let’s explore LTC Insurance options and look at Fixed Income Annuities; creating a LTC Financing Plan that works for you.
Debra K. Bedell
Insurance - a great Hedge against Risk.