caregiver

When you imagine needing long term care, what do you imagine? Is the location a larger building, perhaps an assisted living facility, where responsibilities such as yard care and cooking are someone else’s concern? Or are you in your own home, tended to by paid caregivers, with visits from family and friends?

In terms of valuable life skills, it’s good to know how important (read: expensive) decisions are financed. We’re all familiar with the need to buy, or rent, a place to live. We know the responsibilities of purchasing or leasing a new car.

Written By: Anna Kucirkova

Edited By: Cori Hundt

The effects of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are an ever growing concern for the aging, caregivers, and those in the medical profession. The disease causes pain and agony for the sufferer and can be equally as distressing for those who see their loved one lose their memory and ability to function.

Parents are used to financially supporting their minor-age children. However, most adults don’t give a second thought to the possibility of being legally obligated to support their parents.

We all know that breaking news is pretty synonymous with breaking bad news. OK, usually with very bad news. After all, as the saying goes, “if it bleeds, it leads.” Ouch! Controversy, both real and manufactured, grabs our attention, sells newspapers, and garners views on digital devices.

What’s the sentiment at the heart of long term care planning? No, it's not fear. (Of care costs or gaps in Medicare.) It's not even concern. (About medical conditions or Medicaid eligibility.) I’m talking about love. Yes, I know Valentine’s Day is in the rear view mirror. That’s OK. The kind of love I’m talking about transcends flowers and cards.

It’s sad but true: by the time most people realize they wish they had a long term care insurance policy, they are too sick or old to buy one.

So, in an effort to mitigate the crushing financial toll long term care will have with no planning, many of them end up doing short-term planning– let’s call it crisis planning. Crisis planning isn’t about optimal strategies. It’s all about limiting the financial destruction and trying to make up for the fact that no real plan for how to pay for care is in place.

Getting long term care planning done well in advance of when you actually need it stacks the deck in your favor. That’s why people in their 40’s-60’s are benefiting themselves by visiting the topic of long term care planning decades in advance of their 80’s, when they are most likely to have a claim.

Modern consumers have greatly benefited from the ability to comparison shop and order from virtually any purveyor. This reality has even started to infiltrate the healthcare market.

However, long term care decisions for yourself or a loved one tend to be more difficult and cannot necessarily be made at the touch of a button through technology like Siri and Alexa. Whether the search is for a home health care worker, or, a facility such as an assisted living facility or nursing home, the choice is often a complex and nuanced one.

According to AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC), approximately 7.5 million Americans care for loved ones age 49 or over for an average of 41 hours a week. What many of these caregivers are unaware of is that respite care exists that would allow them time off from the often around-the-clock services they are providing for their care recipients.