Introduction
As people get older, many everyday tasks become harder to perform, which can span from something as straightforward as doing chores around the house to the more subtle function of maintaining close contact with one’s friends. Modern society understands that seniors need extra care and offers different options that provide it. One solution for dealing with old age is long-term care (LTC), which includes a variety of devices for helping a retiree maintain their health and way of leading life. Another way of providing support is an independent senior living community, which is a housing option for seniors who, typically, do not have serious medical conditions that warrant constant medical supervision. These two systems aim to solve a common problem with which older people deal. However, their approaches to helping seniors lead their everyday lives are vastly different. The goal of this paper is to compare long-term care and independent senior living communities.
Long-Term Care
Long-term care is considered suitable for seniors with serious health conditions that prevent them from experiencing life to the fullest. What LTM typically constitutes is a caretaker with background knowledge in the medical field to visit the retiree in their home and provide help wherever it may be needed. This can include chores around the house, particularly cooking and cleaning, medical check-ups, and activities that provide entertainment. Most people in need of long-term care also “have no one to help meet needs for social interaction” (Chamberlain et al, 2019, p. 667), so their caretaker typically serves that function as well. LTC has several advantages, the most important of which is its “flexible system with care individualized to the needs and preferences of the consumer” (Milte et al, 2017, p. 138), which generally cannot be achieved at nursing or retirement home. Another asset is long-term care’s ability to tend to the retiree’s medical ailments which are often the driving force behind creating problems that prevent the senior from living their everyday life.
Independent Senior Living Communities
Unlike LTC, independent senior living communities do not accept retirees with serious medical conditions that would require continual supervision. Organizations in charge of these communities generally provide seniors with apartments that allow them to be around people of their age and activities that entertain and educate them. The main idea behind these retirement homes is that as people age, they find that it is hard for their families to relate to their problems, which leads to a loss of contact with them. Loneliness is particularly dangerous at an older age as it can lead to serious psychological problems on top of the existing physical ones. However, “given proximity and homogeneity of residents, and congregate space and programming, retirement homes have great potential for mitigating loneliness and concurrently addressing depression and anxiety” (Taylor et al, 2018, p. 639). Independent senior living communities bringing people of a similar age together help normalize some problems retirees face and remind them that with help, they can continue living as they used to when they were younger.
Conclusion
Long-term care and independent senior living communities strive to ease the burden of aging for people. LTC provides individual help for some of the most vulnerable members of society by aiding them with their health issues, chores, and entertaining them. However, regular visits from a caretaker often provide only the bare minimum when it comes to having the patient’s needs for social interaction met. Independent senior living communities solve this problem with more efficiency by bringing seniors together, which allows them to have regular communications with people with similar experiences. However, this approach is less individualized with retirement homes providing the same options for all their inhabitants and is not acceptable for patients with serious health problems. To choose what type of care suits a retiree, one has to weigh their priorities and needs.
References
Chamberlain, S.A., Duggleby, W., Teaster, P., & Estabrooks, C. (2019). Characteristics and unmet care needs of unbefriended residents in long-term care: A qualitative interview study. Aging & Mental Health, 24(4), 659-667.
Milte, R., Ratcliffe, J., Bradley, C., Shulver, W., & Crotty, M. (2017). Evaluating the quality of care received in long-term care facilities from a consumer perspective: Development and construct validity of the consumer choice index – six dimension instrument. Aging & Society, 39, 138-160.
Taylor, H., Wang, Y., & Morrow-Howell, N. (2018). Loneliness in senior housing communities. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 61(6), 623-639.