Grants for starting an Adult Day Care Center

Because adult daycare services represent an important community need, both government and nonprofit organizations offer grants to assist with their creation. Although finding a grant to cover the entire cost of an adult daycare center's construction and upkeep is unlikely, grants that support particular programs that can be offered by the daycare center will help make offering quality care easier.
Social Services Block Grant

The Social Services Block Grant is a federal program that awards funds to states for the provision of social services. Although states determine which agencies and projects can receive the funds, the United States Department of Health and Human Services reports that one type of program supported by these grants is adult daycare. Furthermore, the grant is intended to help individuals become independent, self-sufficient and to reduce neglect. Organizations starting an adult daycare center can learn more about opportunities through their states by contacting their state departments of social services.
Administration on Aging Grants

Because many people consuming adult daycare centers are the elderly, the Administration on Aging offers a number of grants that can be used to fund adult daycare centers where the elderly reside. For example, in 2011, the AOA made funds available to State Units on Aging for the creation of a statewide services network capable of caring for dementia patients. The administration also offers grants to nonprofit, educational and academic organizations for research and services in the area of respite care and caregiver support, nutrition, research and the prevention of elder abuse. Organizations and states wanting to create adult daycare facilities may be eligible for some of these funds, depending on what kind of residents they will serve and what types of services they will provide.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grants

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation offers grant funds to public universities, nonprofit organizations and other public agencies for the improvement of health-care services, including adult daycare. Although the foundation prefers to grant programs that can be easily assessed, such as research and training initiatives, organizations that want to start or reorganize adult daycare facilities may be eligible for grants to fund a part of their projects, such as staff training or innovative programs.

Department of Veterans Affairs Grants

Since many veterans are in need of adult day services, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs offers project grants for the creation of community programs for eligible veterans. Adult daycare centers that will offer services to veterans and agree to receive per diem compensation from the VA may be eligible, as long as they offer all of the medical services required by the federal agency. Organizations interested in creating such a program should visit the VA website for more information.

How adult day care is shaping the healthcare field

There are more than 4,600 adult day services centers across the U.S. — a 35% increase since 2002.

• More than 260,000 participants and family caregivers are serviced — an increase of over 100,000, or 63%, since 2002.

Adult Day care has become an integral part of the healthcare continuum for the elderly and for people with developmental disabilities since its inception 25 years ago in the United States. It cares for the elderly by helping them with Daily activities of Living, by supressing their loneiness, giving them a place to go to every day to visit with friends and in some cases has saved their lives. There is an adult day care center in Bayonne, New Jersey who's nurses were so attentive to their clients physical states that they noticed small changes in their health which led to them calling the client's doctors. They reported the changes to the doctors, the clients were seen by their doctors and life changing procedures were done to save their lives. Both clients are still happily attending the adult day care center.

Adult day care and Assisted Living Group, LLC has been assisting nurses, hospitals, nursing homes, entrepeneurs and Universities to start successful adult day care centers for the past 18 years. It is our pleasure to serve you and to make Adult Day Care the leading choice in daily senior care in the United States. We have also assisted Poland, Spain, the Virgin Islands, Argentina and China create Adult Day Care Centers.

Adult Day Centers Provide Important Services

Adult day services centers serve as an emerging provider of transitional care and short-term rehabilitation following hospital discharge. As a preferred platform for chronic disease management, adult day centers are an interactive, safe and secure environment for participants requiring supervised daily care. While nearly half of all participants nationally have some level of dementia, other common chronic diseases among participants include chronic hypertension, physical disability, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental illness and developmental disability. Adult day services provide a reliable source of support, restore balance in times of crisis, and enhance overall quality of life for caregivers.

What is Adult Day Care

Adult day service centers provide a coordinated program of professional and compassionate services for adults in a community-based group setting. Services are designed to provide social and some health services to adults who need supervised care in a safe place outside the home during the day. They also afford caregivers respite from the demanding responsibilities of caregiving. Adult day centers generally operate during normal business hours five days a week. Some programs offer services in the evenings and on weekends. Although each facility may differ in terms of features, these general services are offered by most adult day centers:
Social activities

interaction with other participants in planned activities appropriate for their conditions
Transportation

door-to-door service
Meals and snacks

participants are provided with meals and snacks, those with special dietary needs are offered special meals
Personal care

help with toileting, grooming, eating and other personal activities of daily living
Therapeutic activities

exercise and mental interaction for all participants.

In general, there are three types of adult day centers: social (which provides meals, recreation and some health-related services), medical/health (which provides social activities as well as more intensive health and therapeutic services) and specialized (which provide services only to specific care recipients, such as those with diagnosed dementias or developmental disabilities. Caregivers typically select the type of center a care recipient attends based on the care needed.

The Aging States of America

As the baby boomers grow older, America is getting older too, According to the 2010 census, the nation's median age has increased to 37.2 up from 35.3 in 2000. The aging trend held up in every state -only the District of Columbia has a younger median age now than adecade ago. For states have major implications for policy and politics. Older states, such as Maine, Vermont, West Virginia and New Hampshire, may have less time than others to prepare for challenges such as providing long-term care for a growing elderly population.At the same time, younger states such as Utah and Texas must wrestle with educating relatively large school- age populations.

Adult day care and assisted living facilities are a viable solutions to our country's aging population in terms of caring for the elders in our communities. Let's continue to assist our communities with these services.

Aging

As the Wall Street Journal reports, for as long as human being have searched for the fountain of youth, they have also feared the consequences of extended life. Today we are on the cusp of a revolution that may finally resolve that tension: advances in medicine and biotechnology will radically increase not just our life spans but also, crucially, our health spans.

The number of people living to advanced old age is already on the rise. There are some 5.7 million Americans 85 and older, amounting to about 1.8% of the population, according to the Census Bureau. That is projected to rise to 19 million, or 4.34% of the population, by 2050, based on current trends. The percentage of Americans 100 and older is projected to rise from 0.03% today to 0.14% of the population in 2050. Thats a total of 601,000 centenarians.

But many scientists think that this is just the beginning; they are working furiously to make it possible for human beings to achieve very long life spans. They are studying the aging process itself and experimenting with ways to slow it down by way of diet, drugs and genetic therapy. They are also working on new ways to replace worn-out organs-and even to help the body to rebuild itself.

Adult day care will be in greater need as the elderly will still be able to live longer and have lives that need medical attention and socializing.

Wanderes Policy & Procedures in Adult Day Care

This is a sample policy and procedure for wanderers in an adult day care center:

POLICY

The safety and well being of Adult Day Service participants will be a primary concern of the staff. Additional supervision and security measures will be incorporated into the program to safeguard participants who are "wanderers".

PROCEDURE:

Identify participants with a history of wandering (as noted by family members or through Adult Day Service experience) to staff, students, and volunteers. Supervise participants who wander. These participants must never be "unattended". A staff member, student, or volunteer should always maintain visual contact with the wanderer. Ensure that a photograph of each participant is on file. Contact the local police department to familiarize them with the type of service we offer in their jurisdiction. This "non-crisis" contact will facilitate action when an emergency occurs. Maintain a list of phone numbers including police, local Emergency Management Agencies (EMA), local volunteer groups etc. to be called if a prolonged search is required.

ACTION TO BE TAKEN IF A PARTICIPANT IS MISSING Assign one person to coordinate the search effort. Search the building and immediate vicinity thoroughly. Conduct a brief search of the neighborhood if the participant is not found during the initial search of the building/vicinity. (Adult Day Service programming and other participants' safety should not be jeopardized when staff goes out to look for the wanderer). Coordinate the neighborhood canvas. Assign directions to travel and time away from the center. Staff will check in frequently to keep informed of the situation. Call the local police department to help in the search if a participant is not found within the immediate vicinity. Contact the participant's family after the local police have been notified. Notify the Illinois Department on Aging, the Veteran's Administration, or the Illinois Department of Rehabilitation of any incident involving a participant enrolled in ADC through that program. Notify Director, by pager, of the situation if the Director is not on site during the incident. Follow any further directions about who else to contact. Record a description of the incident and outcome in the progress notes of the participant file. Ensure that staff is available by the phone until the person is found. Forward Adult Day Service phone to home if necessary. Arrange for professionals (i.e., ministers, social workers, etc.) to be available, should a person be missing for a prolonged period. They will be able to help staff, family, friends and other participants deal with their feelings. Notify personnel outside of Adult Day Service with resolution of situation if they were involved in the search.

NOTE: MANY OF THESE STEPS WILL BE DONE SIMULTANEOUSLY OR WITHIN A VERY SHORT PERIOD OF TIME.

Facts about adult day care

Adult day service centers provide a coordinated program of professional and compassionate services for adults in a community-based group setting. Services are designed to provide social and some health services to adults who need supervised care in a safe place outside the home during the day. They also afford caregivers respite from the demanding responsibilities of caregiving. Adult day centers generally operate during normal business hours five days a week. Some programs offer services in the evenings and on weekends. Although each facility may differ in terms of features, these general services are offered by most adult day centers:
Social activities

interaction with other participants in planned activities appropriate for their conditions
Transportation

door-to-door service
Meals and snacks

participants are provided with meals and snacks, those with special dietary needs are offered special meals
Personal care

help with toileting, grooming, eating and other personal activities of daily living
Therapeutic activities

exercise and mental interaction for all participants.

In general, there are three types of adult day centers: social (which provides meals, recreation and some health-related services), medical/health (which provides social activities as well as more intensive health and therapeutic services) and specialized (which provide services only to specific care recipients, such as those with diagnosed dementias or developmental disabilities. Caregivers typically select the type of center a care recipient attends based on the care needed.

Request for Adult Day Care Centers

The Centers for Disease Control has requested input from adult day services providers about influenza baccinations of health care personnel in long term care settings. Please submit your thoughts on problems, barriers and solutions on how we can improve vaccination rates among personnel to Susan Nirschel, RN, by September 1, 2011, via email at snirschel@westernpa.easterseals.com.

New Wanderer's Bracelet

We have posted a new product for people in your adult day care or assisted living facilities that assists people with dementia or Alzheimers. This bracelet is the latest in technology. It has a GPS Tracking system that the facility or an individual can monitor in real time. It also has a two way communication device so that you may speak with the person who is wearing the bracelet. Plus it has a SOS button if the person is in need of help they can just push the SOS button and the monitoring station, the assisted living facility or adult day care center will get notified and get help to the person right away.

This bracelet also comes as a clip so it can be clipped on a wheelchair or belt. The GPS system is monitored by a station in Reading, PA , one of only two centers in the country. The gps system is so strong that if the person goes to another state it will track them there as well.

This bracelet will allow for people to travel out of state and still be monitored, it will assist if an assisted living facility or adult day care center is taking people on a trip so they wont wander from the group or if they do they can be found very quickly.

It also detects falls so people can feel safe while wearing it in the home or their cottage in Independent living.

Marketing Your Adult Day Care Center

Here are some steps to take for marketing your adult day care center.
Step One. The First Call: Converting the call to a first visit

Step Two. Following-Up the First Call: Focusing efforts on caregivers who did not commit to a visit

Step Three. The First Visit: Selling benefits, overcoming objections, helping caregivers make the choice

Step Four. Converting the First Participant Visit into a Long-Term Enrollment: Guidelines for the first visit through the first two weeks

Step Five. Customer Satisfaction: Turning the first day into many, many, many more.

The Furture of Adult Day Care

The future programs of adult day care seems to be in the hands of the 50 states in America. As I write applications for our clients to start adult day care, it has come to my attention that the states are regulating what clients are being taken for adult day care centers in order to maintain home based care instead of institutionalization.

One such example, is adult day care centers in Boston, MA. There are three levels of care and three levels of reimbursement for those levels of care. The lowest level of care includes clients who could be at a senior center and need some help with ADL's. The second level of care provides medication management reminders, help getting in and out of chairs, socialization, care plans and help with ADL's and IADL's. The third level would be a client who may have just come from the hospital with a stroke or other debilitating illness where they need more attention and physical care and rehabilitation.

When adult day care began in this country, one just needed help with ADL's and be on medicaid to be a client. It was easier on the center and the center's main goal was to socialize the client and watch for any signs of progressive illness.

Adult day care has come a long way and is a vital part of communities every where as a continuum of care for living at home as long as possible.