What Do Single Women Need to Know About Long-Term Care Planning?

Long-term care is essentially a "women's issue". Women almost always take ultimate responsibility for the day-to-day care of a parent or other family member in need of care. This is particularly true for single women, who sometimes feel guilty if they don't step in and provide the bulk of the care required by a parent or a sibling.

It's also vital for single women to learn about their options and plan for long- term care because providing care can sometimes affect her health, causing her to personally need care. Women are not only the major providers of care but are also the major recipients of care. Most of these recipients are single.

In earlier years single women had limited choices. But today, they have access to resources to help them actively participate in planning for long-term care for themselves and their families. An added benefit to planning ahead is that it can reduce or sometimes even eliminate their need to provide hands-on care, freeing them to provide the emotional support they're so naturally good at providing. Even though they'll always be "caretakers", a single woman's role today can also include advanced planning so that the comfortable and healthy retirement they're planning for themselves can be realized.