Long-term care – let’s be honest. It’s not exactly a hot topic when you’re spending time with your friends and family. But, let’s face it. The decisions you make now about your long-term care will have a critical impact on you, your family and the quality of your retirement years.
What Is Long-Term Care?
Well, in a recent article in Retirement Daily, financial adviser Ken Waltzer explained that long-term care falls into two buckets: services for those who need help with two or more activities of daily living (ADL) and services for someone with severe cognitive impairment.
How many people need help with ADL?
Well, overall, 7% of adults aged 65 or more years need help personal care such as eating, bathing, dressing and walking, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. But that number rises as people age. In fact, 21.1% of adults aged 85 or more years needed help with ADL. Read Checklist for Family Caregivers.
What’s more, the number of people living with cognitive impairment in the U.S. is equal to twice the population of New York City. More than 16 million people in the U.S. are living with cognitive impairment, according to the CDC.
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What’s the difference between temporary and ongoing long-term care?
Waltzer also says long-term care can be divided into temporary or ongoing. Not surprisingly, the most common condition requiring ongoing long-term care is dementia. Dementia, according to the National Institute on Aging, is a loss of thinking, remembering, and reasoning skills, and it is not a normal part of aging. Learn more about dementia and how it is diagnosed.
Date: July 11, 2019
Source: The Street
