Community Based Long Term Care As The Better AlternativeThe importance of community based long term care cannot be underscored enough. With rising medical costs and tight Medicaid budgets, more and more people are finding it most cost effective and prudent to turn to community based long term care. What is innovative about this type of long term care service is that it combines the comfort and cost-effectiveness of home care with professional services to assure that the patient is both comfortable and adequately looked after. There are a variety of community-based settings ranging from foster homes for adults, so-called board and care homes, continuing care retirement communities to assisted living facilities, all of which are combined with housing and necessary social support. These are essentially recommended for people who may need assistance in their homes but are well enough not to be provided with 24-hour watch which is usually the case in nursing homes. Community based long term care which is also similar to home based service is a long term support service for elderly, disabled, inured or chronically ill people who may need assistance classified as either ADL or activities of daily living or IADL which is instrumental activities of daily living. ADL oriented community based long term care involves assistance in eating, bathing and dressing while IADL may mean meal preparations and assistance with medications. Community based long term care is also inclusive of a number of other types of services. Caregivers or assistants can provide personal care services, homemaker or chore assistance to accomplish everyday tasks; they can even do home modifications and buy personal care supplies as necessary. Schedule of service can be made in accordance of one's needs; a respite care-substitute can come in during days only or on weekends, nights and on emergencies. The respite care-substitute can also be asked to relieve the family caregiver through short stays in the long term care facility that the patient is staying in. Community based long term care also includes therapeutic and socially stimulating activities such as adult day programs which includes all meals and transportation. If the patient recovers well enough and is of an age in which going back to work is a viable option, there are even supported employment programs as well as training and placement. If the patient has been out of work for sometime, there are also provisions for work adjustment. If there is an inclination towards a vocational course, there are vocational evaluations and other vocational services available. In general, community based long term care indeed ensures that the quality of life that a patient has formerly enjoyed may be restored in some capacity. While there may be certain restrictions of course on what one can now do given whatever condition one has, the programs and services offered by such care ensures that enjoyment, comfort and other mentally and physically healthy pursuits can still be enjoyed. Community based long term care also includes professional assessment by a competent case manager to see if there are other requirements that need to be met. If one were to expound and enlarge on what it means to require long term care services, it would include millions of individuals who have medical conditions and disabilities that require such services. With rising costs of insurance payments, prohibitive fees for long term care facilities, inability to live within what Medicaid prescribes and generally limited income, it would seem that community based long term care indeed offers the best option. |