If I had asked this question to myself 10 years ago I would have said nothing, it means nothing. Back then I thought long term care was only for "old people" who were senile and unable to get around. Currently I know that this is untrue. There are so many different aspects of Long Term Care that most people do not realize even exist.
One of my first memories as a child of a LTC setting was visiting my Great Grandparents in the assisted living facility. I believe that I was around 4 years old at the time. They had their own little apartment and I remember my Great Grandfather with his snow white hair and thick black square glasses and my Great Grandmother who crocheted dolls and had them lined up on the back of the couch. Those dolls always scared me. I also remember my Grandfather who was ill with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease needing in home care. I would spend the summers as a child with my grandparents in Southern Illinois. A home health nurse would make daily visits to my grandfather to assist my aging grandmother with certain things like bathing him, making sure that his health was good, and such. I do know that when it was closer to the end of his life hospice was called in and a hospital bed and all of his equipment was in the living room of her house.
But when I think back those are not the things that I think about. I remember fondly sitting and watching the Cardinals play on TV with my grandpa and him trying to entertain me by catching the imaginary rabbits that he thought he saw in the living room. Me giggling as a little girl thinking to myself he is so silly. The sad thing is though that he really did see the rabbits and sometimes would wander off trying to get them back to their home in the woods. The police would eventually track him down and bring him back but it was still scary all the same. This is the point that an adult sitter would be called in to sit with him during the day a few days a week to allow my grandmother to get things done.
Without the assistance from the team of Long Term Care professionals I do not think that my grandfather or my grandmother would have made it as long as they did. My grandfather was able to stay in the comfort of his own home throughout the last years of his life and my grandmother was able to keep her sanity during that very difficult time.
