Long Term Care • Levels of Care • ADLs • Assisted Living • Community-Based Care • CCRCs
Long term care encompasses a broad range of services designed to help individuals who need assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) due to chronic illness, disability, or aging. There are six recognized ADLs under tax-qualified LTC plans: bathing, dressing, eating, transference, continence, and toileting. Taking medication is not an ADL.
Levels of care range from most to least intensive: acute, supervisory, skilled, and personal. Care settings include home-based care, community-based care (such as adult day care), and residential care (nursing homes and assisted living facilities). Assisted living facilities cost roughly half the price of a nursing home and provide personal care, medication help, meals, and emergency staff — but not on-staff physical therapists. CCRCs offer a full continuum of care in one location, with fees tied to the level of services needed.