The American Health Care Association (AHCA) and the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) recently released its fourth briefing as part of a series examining the current status of assisted living and long-term care to raise awareness and coincide with President Obama’s State of the Union address.  The brief reveals that there are almost 1 million people living in approximately 38,000 assisted living communities in the US and highlights the profile of assisted living residents that show:

• the average age of residents is approximately 87 years with almost 75% being women
• residents have a median annual income of $19,000
• residents need assistance with almost two activities of daily living that include 64% percent require assistance with bathing and 39% need assistance with dressing
• one-third of residents have a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia
• 87% of residents report needing help with meal preparation and 81% need help managing their medication
• 75% of the residents, either pay themselves or have family members as the primary payers
• 131,000 low income Americans are receiving Medicaid coverage for services in assisted living.

“For many Americans who are making decisions about long term care, assisted living is often their first exposure to our world,” stated Governor Mark Parkinson, President and CEO of AHCA/NCAL. “As we enter 2011, we now have more long term care options than ever before. That speaks directly to the strong state of our profession and how we are meeting residents needs every day.”