Abstract:

This 82-page chartbook by Enid Kassner and Robert W. Bectel of the Public Policy Institute contains a wealth of data and information on the characteristics of people age 50+ who receive help with long-term care needs. In addition to describing the population age 50 and older that receives long-term care, it presents data on the characteristics of long-term care providers, the financing of long-term care, and public attitudes about various types of service providers. Trend data on disability and age suggests that on the average, persons of a given age are healthier and have few disabling conditions than others of the same age ten years before. However, since disabilities increase with age and our population is living longer, the number of individuals with activity, work or functional limitations is increasing. In recent years the service networks for adults with disabilities and older adults at the state and local levels have grown closer together – about half of the states now have adult disability and aging programs in the same organisational unit. At the national level there is more fragmentation with limited coordination between disability and aging programs which are scattered among a number of agencies and departments.