Planning for Alzheimer’s Care

by Joseph A. Jackson, LICSW, CCM

Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic, progressive illness. As with other chronically ill people, those with Alzheimer’s disease need chronic care. Chronic care differs from the acute care we receive in hospitals and doctor’s offices-it is delivered over time and fluctuates from day to day. Chronic care is health care in the form of daily personal-care assistance, supervision, medication administration, meal preparation, companionship, shopping, cleaning, laundry, and so on.

America’s chronic-care system is a patchwork of services that varies from region to region and state to state. It includes community-based and institutional care providers as well as state, federal, and private funding sources. Many Alzheimer’s patients are served by this system-in their homes, in special “dementia-care” programs, in adult day care facilities and in nursing homes. But the health care professionals working in this system-our social workers, nurses, therapists and case managers-are increasingly frustrated in their efforts to meet the needs of the nation’s growing chronic-care caseload. No longer can they rely on the once abundant Medicare and Medicaid programs to subsidize the chronic care their patients need.

Alzheimer’s disease is fast becoming the most prevalent and the most disabling chronic illness in America. “Barring a medical miracle, in fact, by the middle of [this] century there will be as many Americans with Alzheimer’s as currently reside in the state of Pennsylvania.” As our chronic care system strains to capacity, people with Alzheimer’s disease and their families will need to utilize their own resources more effectively to ensure the quality of their care. A new practice model-Community LifeCare Planning (CLCP)-will help them do this. Here we offer a few basic CLCP strategies to aid the long-term care planning effort.

via Planning for Alzheimer’s Care.