Since 2002, the MetLife Mature Market Institute has collected national survey data on nursing home, assisted living, and home care costs, adding adult day service costs in 2007.  And the most recently released survey information from MetLife indicates rising long term care costs across the nation as well as in the state of Ohio in 2012.  Unfortunately, recent data also tells us that the cost of long-term-care continues to rise faster than the national inflation rate. 

MetLife surveyed approximately 6,700 long-term-care providers, reviewing base costs as well as bundling of costs with add-on services such as transportation and extra meals.  In Ohio, long-term-care providers in larger cities such as Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus were surveyed as well as other smaller towns in the state.  Average costs of care in Ohio were recorded as follows:

• Adult day services: $56/day or $20,440/year
  (Annual rates for adult day services are based on 5 days per week)
• Assisted living: $3,512/month or $42,144/year
• Home care (homemakers, home health aides): $19/hour, $380/week or $20,520/year
  (Annual rates for home care are based on 4 hours per day, 5 days per week.)
• Nursing home semi-private room: $203/day or $74,298
• Nursing home daily rate private room: $225/day or $82,350

To learn more about the rising costs of long-term-care, read The Wall Street Journal article “The Cost of Living Longer” or explore the Department of Health and Human Services National Clearing House for Long Term Care Information.

The National Alliance of Caregivers (NAC) reports that 29% of the U.S. adult population, or 65.7 million, care for loved ones with chronic disease or disability. Caregivers in the United States are . . .

• predominantly female,
• an average of 48 years old,
• typically caring for a relative, most often a parent,
• providing an average of 20 hours of care per week, and
• providing care for an average of 4.6 years.

Why not make a New Year’s Resolution that helps support the caregivers in your life?  Take a meal to a neighbor, offer to pick up groceries for a working caregiver, help with transportation, and perhaps even more importantly, provide respite for the caregivers in your life.  So, how do you start? 

One web-based tool that might be of use to you is the Lotsa Helping Hands Inc. website, founded in 2005 as a web-based volunteer and caregiving coordination platform.  Losta Helping Hands has launched a campaign called “The Year of Helping Hands” that invites you to make a promise so help a caregiver in 2013.  You can help make a difference in the lives of our caregivers!

Did you know that the U.S. Dept. of Labor, Employment and Training Administration has a Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) devoted to helping older, underprivileged seniors gain employment in later life through community service?  This program was authorized by the Older Americans Act, and offers low-income people over the age of 55 who are unemployeed or have poor employment prospects subsidized, service-based training.  Program participants are placed in community service at non-profit and public facilities, working an average of 20 hours per week.  Some of the placements are at day-care centers, senior centers, schools and hospitals.  The goal of the program is that community service training serve as a bridge to unsubsidized employment opportunities. 

For a list of SCSEP programs in Ohio, click here.