Oetjen Reid: BLOG 1: What does LTC mean to you?

What does LTC mean to you?

When I read the phrase “Long Term Healthcare,” I usually am reminded of my great uncle Ed, mostly because he was the first really old person I knew as a child. Living to the ripe age of 82, he looked forward to the frequent visits of my family and me when we were in town. From this early childhood experience of seeing him in a full care nursing home and witnessing his constant longing to get out, I quickly formed an opinion of what long term care means to me. In my mind, I define LTC as a person living away from home and/or family and taking residence with at least fifty other elderly strangers in a sterile environment where 24 hour care can be provided. I can still picture the borderline insanity that some of the patients displayed at my uncle’s nursing home, such as mumbling loudly, talking to themselves, and having contradicting complaints, such as being hot one moment and freezing the next. It was almost enough to make me feel as if I was an uncaring person when I tried to ignore them as I passed by them on my visits. One other important detail that I learned from my family experience is that LTC has a huge price tag. It made me sad to know that a person often moves into an assisted facility trying to relieve the burden placed upon his family, but sometimes this move creates an unanticipated financial burden for his family with LTC's increasing cost and insurance’s decreasing coverage. By taking a few health service classes, I learned of the laws and regulations that have been passed to improve LTC, but it still does not erase my childhood opinions of LTC. After receiving this assignment, I discussed the topic with a family member to see if he, too, had the same view. He simply described his view by saying, “It is a shame that a person can work his entire life to get ahead and end up being alone without a dime to his name.”