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Adult Day Care

While many associate the phrase long-term care with institutions, the number of Americans in need of long-term care services in the community (12.6 million) far out number those living in institutions (1.8 million).

Family caregivers are the backbone of the long-term care system in the United States. According to AARP, they provide about 80 percent of the care for people who need help with daily activities, such as bathing and dressing, taking medications, and paying bills.

Sometimes families need help. One solution is Adult Day Care.

Whether to take a break or keep your job, Adult Day Care can make caring for a loved one a manageable labor of love. It also provides those attending a chance to make new friends and opportunity to engage in meaningful activity.

Adult Day Care provides a supervised, protective environment; dedicated professional staff; assistance with feeding, bathroom needs, dressing and other personal care needs; planned activities like exercise, creative expression and outings; hot, nutritious meals and snacks. Transportation to and from the center is sometimes provided.

Adult day services allow chronically ill people to continue living at home and still receive needed care. They also offer caregivers a necessary respite, and allow them to continue working.

Arkansas has two types of Adult Day Care. A social model referred to simply as Adult Day Care. The second type, Adult Day Health Care, offers medication management and other health related services as well as supervision and social activities. All Adult Day Care centers in Arkansas are licensed and inspected by the State.

According to the National Adult Day Care Association (NADCA)

More than 3,500 adult day centers are currently operating in the United States providing care for 150,000 older Americans each day.
Nearly 78 percent of adult day centers are operated on a nonprofit or public basis and the remaining 22 percent are for profit.
74 percent of adult day centers are affiliated with larger organizations such as home care, skilled nursing facilities, medical centers, or multi-purpose senior organizations.
The average age of the adult day consumer is 72, and two-thirds of all participants are women.
One quarter of the participants live alone and three-quarters live with a spouse, adult children, or other family and friends.
Fifty percent of the participants using adult day services centers nationwide have some cognitive impairment and one third require nursing services at least weekly.

Fifty-nine percent of the participants require assistance with two or more activities of daily living: eating, bathing, dressing, toileting or transferring; forty-one percent require assistance in three or more areas.
Daily fees for services are almost always less than a home health visit and about half the cost of a skilled nursing facility.

In Arkansas there are over 35 Adult Day Care centers. If you have access to the Internet, you can find where they are located by visiting www.ARGetCare.org or by contacting Kay Curtis — (870) 741-8007 or kcurtis@nwaedd.org — with the Arkansas Adult Day Services Association, PO Box 190, Harrison AR 72602.

Financial assistance may be available. Adult Day Care and Adult Day Health Care are services covered by the AR Department of Health and Human Services ElderChoices program. To be eligible for this program one must meet nursing home admission criteria and qualify financially.

Medicare does not currently cover Adult Day Care. That may change in the future. Federal Legislation authorized a “Demonstration Project for Medical Adult Day-Care Services.” This demonstration project, according to NADCA, will permit a home health agency, directly or under arrangement with a medical adult day facility to provide medical adult day services as a substitute for home health services that would otherwise be provided in a beneficiary’s home. Only Medicare beneficiaries that have home health services prescribed by a physician are eligible for this substitution of services.

The Adult Day Care demonstration project will provide CMS with the data needed to evaluate the efficacy and cost effectiveness of adult day services as a substitute option for home health care services. The demonstration project will last three years, with an evaluation completed no later than 6 months after the end of the three years.

Clearly more Adult Day Care centers are needed. A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded National Study of Adult Day Services found the current number of Adult Day Care Centers in the US falls seriously short of the estimated 8,520 centers needed nationwide.

Today, 22.4 million households are involved in providing care to persons aged 50 and older. Those numbers will grow dramatically as the baby boomers age. Let’s hope in the future Adult Day Care is readily available to support families caring for their loved ones.

Division of Aging and Adult Services
Herb Sanderson, Director
PO Box 1437 - Slot S-530
Little Rock AR 72203-1437
Telephone: (501) 682-2441
Fax: (501) 682-8155