Long Term Care: What is it? Where is it headed?

I personally have no professional experience with anything related to the long term heath care industry.  My knowledge and experiences come from personal observations with family, friends, and my own health issues.  This is my first semester taking any courses related to health care industry.

Long term care is the provision of services for individuals who are incapable of taking care of themselves or elderly who are in need of some extra help with health concerns at either a retirement home, or their personal residence.  Individuals with disabilities may seek out long term care for health related issues, or daily objectives such as help with tasks around the house.  Many elderly choose to seek help through the use of nursing homes but there are many who just hire part time help who come to their home to provide the long term care.  I have witnessed examples where a nurse would visit an elderly person at their residence everyday to check vitals or administer medicine.  Also I have seen physical therapists come to someone's home after an accident, surgery, or when someone is disabled.  An example of the other side of this spectrum would be a uninterrupted live-in care professional who would assist the client, or family with all daily activities.

I would say that the growth potential with the long term care industry is very strong due to the fact a large segment of our population, the baby boomer generation, here in the United States will be reaching retirement age in the coming years.  With such a large amount of our population reaching retirement age around the same time this will inevitably put strain on our health service industry as a whole.  Thus increasing the need for alternative services to direct the baby boomers to more adequate facilities to address their needs on a more regular basis. Preventative medicine, healthy living, and a high quality of long term health services will vastly improve the longevity of our nations citizens as a whole, while easing the expenses, and strain on our health care system associated with the health problems plaguing our nation today.  

What affect can I have on this system?  With no experience its hard for me to inject my opinions on how to fix the stigma or negative stereotype that is sometimes associated with nursing homes, retirement facilities, or long term care in general.  I do not even know if my perspective on long term care is even close to accurate.  I do know that from what I have witnessed in class so far there appears to be very little interest in a field that is absolutely vital in our society.  There appears to be many challenges in recruiting young professionals to this growing industry.  I am optimistic that the long term care industry can meet and exceed the upcoming challenges.