Op-Ed on Long-Term Care Argues for an Advocate

Steve Jacob of the Star-Telegram (TX) wrote an op-ed piece at the end of June dealing with hurdles of providing long-term care for the elderly. Jacob includes figures from a number of recent studies and surveys to show the current state of long-term care in the United States. He discusses the challenges we need to face in order to improve long-term care options.

Long-term care (LTC) has few champions. David Stevenson, a Harvard Medical School professor, noted in a recent edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, that healthcare was mentioned more than 1,000 times during the 35 Democratic and Republican debates during the primaries. But almost nothing has been said about LTC, despite the fact that it comprises about 10 percent of healthcare spending.

LTC is more about social functioning than managing disease. The estimated 9.5 million Americans who require LTC need assistance with at least one activity of daily living (bathing, dressing, eating, toilet use and moving from one room to another) or instrumental activities of daily living (meal preparation, money and medication management, telephone use, light housework and food shopping).

Most LTC services are provided by relatively low-paid trained staff rather than physicians or registered nurses. It’s an intensely personal service, traditionally designed to keep people safe, clean and well-fed. The trend is toward maximizing patient self-sufficiency and independence.

Jacob makes a plea for greater government attention for long-term care solutions, concluding that ". . .along with Social Security and Medicare, long-term care is the third leg on the retirement security stool. It desperately needs a champion."