Marlene S. Stum, Ph.D. Family Social Science

Defining Long Term Care
What comes to your mind when you hear the words "long term care?" The reality of long term care is often much different than many think. Long term care has changed greatly in the past few years adding to the confusion. If you have had experience with parents or grandparents, what you saw and knew as long term care will be different today.
Long term care is a term used to describe a variety of personal care, social and medical services provided to help people with daily living activities and to remain as independent as possible. Typical users of long term care have chronic health problems, physical illnesses, or mental disabilites that limit their ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) or instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs).