AARP Study and Long Term Care

A recent article in the AARP Bulletin today, warning about the over medicating of elderly patients in nursing homes, brought back some painful memories.  Before I retired I was a licensed professional counselor and a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor.  I had extensive experience working in a State of Georgia regional mental health hospital and did extensive consulting work in several local nursing homes.  Caring properly for seriously disabled people due to aging problems and/or associated mental health complications is about the most emotionally draining work you can imagine.

When we had elderly people under our care, managing their often inappropriate behavior was a major difficulty.  Problems we encountered were dementia, belligerent behavior, sexual acting out, refusal to take medications, uncontrolled crying, depression, psychoses—you name it, we saw it.  Such behavior—when it was not easily controlled—would raise the anxiety levels of those on duty—sometimes to a point where I could see little difference between the caretakers and the patients.  And usually the caretakers would run to the psychiatrist on doctor on call and get him to medicate the patient to get the inappropriate behavior under control.

Now, I have no problem with medications to control inappropriate behavior when there is no other practical option.  The problem I found is that caretakers usually get too comfortable with the medication solution, mainly because it is easy and relieves them of their on-the-job suffering.  Basically caretakers often feel helpless in dealing with these difficult patients, having tried the counseling, confrontational, and supportive things they know how to do, and when these fail, which they usually do, they then call for the doctor and his magic pills. The result is often a patient who is over medicated, lethargic, with reduced mental/emotional responses to the world around him.  Those close to such a patient will experience their loved one as a totally different person.

How does this apply to Long Term Care Insurance (LTC)?  Since we are not going to change the sociology of what goes on in intuitional care to a significant degree, it’s best to stay out of such places whenever possible.  A  good Long Term Care Insurance policy helps one to do that.  LTC coverage includes many home care options, whereby one can have the caretakers come into the home of the patient, deliver the needed services under the watchful eye of the family, most often with a more desirable outcome.

Institutional care does have its place, but it is usually short term, getting the patient ready to transition to home care, which is now easier to do with all the recent advances in medicine and rehabilitation in general.  A significant point to remember in all of this is that all the Long Term Care Insurance companies are profit-driven, and their profits are less if one is institionalized, so they want you to do your rehab at home.  I can give personal testimony to this reality, because my wife required several months of institutional rehab care, which was paid for by my regular health insurance, with the LTC insurance picking up most of the follow-up care at home.

Long Term Care Insurance can be an effective financial planning tool that will help protect your independence, nest egg, and prevent being a burden on your family.  If you'd like to learn more please fill in the short form below.  Either way, thanks for reading our last blog of 2009.  We really appreciate it.