What Exactly Is Long Term Care?

Long term care includes help with daily activities such as eating, bathing or dressing. The care can take place in your home, an assisted-living facility, an adult day care center or a nursing home. It encompasses services available in the community, such as visiting nurses, home health aides, home-delivered meals, housekeeping services and adult day care centers. It also covers respite care that provides support to the primary caregiver, who could be a family member, by enabling him or her to take a break.

Who Provides Care?

Surprisingly, the majority of long-term care – about 80 percent – is provided by unpaid caregivers, such as family and friends. At least six out of 10 of these caregivers are also employed in the paid workforce, and 42 percent are over the age of 50.¹ The costs to these caregivers themselves are hard to calculate. They include out-of-pocket expenses, the economic insecurity caused by changes in work patterns, and physical health effects.

1	Eckenwiler, Lisa, Center for American Progress, “Caring about Long-Term Care; an Ethical Framework for Caregiving” (2007)