Adult Day Health: Still the Only One

by Lisa Cochran, from the December 2003 Newsletter

I recently visited with Barb Mahoney, the director of Gritman Medical Center’s Adult Day Health facility located at 225 E. Palouse River Drive. Barb has a background in physical therapy and has worked with the senior population for over 30 years. When she talks about her career, she becomes visibly animated. She loves her vocation and is excited to talk about this program, which opened just over two years ago and is still the only facility of its kind in Idaho. Adult Day Health was instituted to fill a much-needed niche in the community by providing vulnerable adults, including the frail elderly, with a wide range of services in conjunction with an active treatment program. Along with a wide variety of activities, Adult Day Health offers a safe, supportive and pleasant daytime program for participants. The program is targeted to adults with physical or mental impairments, including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, who are living in the home or recently discharged from a care facility. Adult Day Health can also help during the early stages of hospice care or during periods of transition while offering support to families facing difficult tasks and choices.

Barb is excited about this program’s enhancement of our community. More and more people these days are caring for their own children as well as one or both parents, making them what is called the “Sandwich Generation.” Often, a family member has to give up his or her job or cut back on activities outside the home to provide full-time care of a loved one. Not surprisingly, this kind of arrangement can be stressful and burnout can occur for the caregiver as well as boredom or inactivity for the relative. Adult Day Health is a great alternative.

Adult Day Health offers a myriad of activities and regular medical monitoring. This program not only gives elderly family members something interesting and meaningful to do but also allows caregivers to get a much-needed respite. Just as important, Adult Day Health offers a cost effective means to enhance the quality of life of the frail elderly and their families while delaying or preventing the need to place them in a nursing home. Serving both Whitman and Latah counties, even people from Nez Perce and Asotin counties may use its services. Costs can be covered by Medicaid or VA benefits or from private pay with a sliding fee scale, in some cases.

Adult Day Health is a comprehensive program of care not based solely on a social model of interaction but is coupled with a medical model aimed at maintaining and/or improving physical and cognitive functioning of participants. Staff includes a medical social worker, a registered nurse, nursing assistants, a counselor for clients and families and an occupational therapist involved in a program of active treatment. Daily routines include music, exercise, crafts, food preparation, as well as activities of daily living. Lunch is served every day, and although the facility is open Monday through Friday, most participants drop in two or three times per week. There is also some flexible scheduling. Currently serving an average of eight participants each day, Adult Day Care has openings for additional participants.

Barb credits the success of the facility to a tremendous staff, dedicated volunteers, and the truly remarkable donations of time and materials from the community. Her hope is to continue improvements but also to become more self-sufficient by purchasing the building and grounds. She would like to see the facility enlarged to accommodate more interactive opportunities, including inter-generational programs, and formal support groups. She would like to increase outreach programs. A more immediate wish list includes art or crafts items (old costume jewelry and button collections are real winners), simple jigsaw puzzles, kitchen and baking utensils, figurines, seasonal decorations, pictures, paintings, CDs — anything that might be used to enhance the center or the programs.

If you are interested in the services provided by the facility, you are welcome to take a tour or join the staff and participants for lunch. (Please call ahead to let them know how many for lunch). If you know an older person who could benefit from this service, take them along or just go to interact with the participants by playing cards, doing a puzzle, presenting a slide show, playing an instrument, working in the “healing” garden, talking with or reading to someone or volunteer to help with scheduled activities. You can also adopt a local “grandparent.” Positive, stimulating experiences and inter-generational contact enriches us all.

Lisa A. Cochran has a 5-year-old and may one day have to take care of her 73-year-old father.

Copyright: Copyright on articles and recipes are jointly held by the Moscow Food Co-op and the respective authors, except were otherwise noted.

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