Adult Day Health Care
Evaluate Your Needs
The first step in finding the most suitable adult day health care program is to honestly assess what care and services the person and his or her caregivers need. And because providers offer different types of care depending on type of service and location, you might want to rank the requirements from top to bottom, beginning with the essentials.
Consider Individual Needs
By talking with and observing the potential client, assess whether he or she needs the specific kinds of help that adult day health care facilities must provide, including:
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Rehabilitation resources, such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy, which include written treatment plans and assessments of progress;
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Medical and nursing services for ongoing and emergency care, such as individual patient assessments and plans and specifications on the use of restraints and administering medications;
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Nutrition services;
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Psychiatric, psychological, or social services with written plans for care and progress assessments;
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Recreational and social activities designed for individual participants and supervised by a full-time employee with specific training; and
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Transportation to and from the center.
If the potential client needs less intensive care than this, particularly if he or she needs help with personal care and social activities, but little outside medical care, consider the option of adult day care, which is generally easier to find and less expensive.
Find Out Caregivers’ Needs
Talk with family members, home care, or hospice workers who will be providing the rest of the care — and find out what they need and hope to get from an adult day health care arrangement. If you are the person providing the bulk of the care, that may involve doing some soul-searching.
Caregiver needs may include:
- Custodial care during work hours or occasional free time;
- Help with transportation;
- Support and information about caregiving and community resources; and
- Help in planning care.
For general information about adult day health care, contact the National Adult Day Services Association.
Special Care for Those with Alzheimer’s or Dementia
Not every adult day health care provider can meet the special and changing care needs of clients who have Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Alzheimer’s Day Care Resource Centers are specialized centers that target services, such as structured routines and activities that help clients succeed at familiar tasks, to people who have Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia.
Even within this specialty, however, centers differ in the level of care they provide, and not all are suited to care for people at all stages of Alzheimer’s. For example, some day care facilities specialize in Alzheimer’s disease along the entire continuum, while others will only accept people in the early stages.
Questions to ask. If the facility you’re considering does offer care for people with Alzheimer's disease, there are a number of specific questions to consider asking administrators there, including:
- How far into the disease will you care for them?
- Is your staff specially trained to work with people who have Alzheimer’s?
- What are the limitations in terms of services provided?
- What type of activities do you provide that are especially designed for people with Alzheimer’s?
- How many people with Alzheimer’s are currently enrolled in your program?
Finding a facility. In California, every Area Agency on Aging must designate at least one Alzheimer’s Day Care Resource Center within the area it serves to provide specialized Alzheimer’s care and community outreach and education. For information on the facility in your area, contact the nearest Area Agency on Aging office.