Evaluating Need: Characteristics of Care - Chronic LTC Care
In a perfect world, everyone would bounce right back should they meet with accident or illness. Sadly, this is not always the case. Recovery can sometimes take longer than a few months. Some illnesses and injuries result in permanent debilitation. These conditions require what is called chronic care.
Chronic Long Term Care Needs
Although in acute care it can be the case that the individual is not fully restored to health but has adapted to new limitations, they will ultimately no longer need care. In the case of chronic conditions, ongoing, episodic or repetitive care for a person’s condition will be necessary throughout their lifetime. Chronic conditions can be physical, mental, or emotional. They include both illnesses and impairments that the patient was either born with or incurred later in life.
In these situations, the disabled person may be able, to varying degrees, to care for themselves and carry on usual activities of daily living. However, a caregiver, or group of caregivers, is often needed full-time on an ongoing basis. This is particularly the case for those who must meet the challenges of severe disabilities. Care may be administered in the home, or in a full or part time facility, depending on the needs of the individual and the resources available to him or her in their community. These can include:
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Continuing Chronic Treatments
People with chronic conditions that are less severe or episodic are often able to live independently for long periods of time. However, at times they will need intermittent skilled and custodial care. As with ongoing care, this can be formal or informal. This is the case with many mental and emotional disabilities, as well as some diseases, like cancer, diabetes, or cardiac conditions.
Chronic conditions can include many of the same impairments that merit acute care, the difference being they are permanent. For example:
- Spinal cord injury
- Brain damage
- Alzheimer's
- Parkinson’s
- Emphysema
- Advanced diabetes
- Advanced pain management
- AIDS
- Incurable cancers
- Severe mental illnesses or retardation
- Cerebral palsy and other physical disabilities
For those who suffer chronic illnesses and their loved ones, times of treatment can be a stressful and uncertain time. Government programs are covering less and less of the considerable costs of chronic care treatment; LTC insurance can help alleviate the financial burden that, regrettably, becomes progressively worse as the individual ages.
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