Starting an Adult Day Care Center
Amanda G. Sillars, MSW, LCSW
Interested in Opening an Adult Day center?
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Then you’ve come to the right place. In this series of blog posts, I will answer the questions most often posed to our team about starting an adult day care center and explain everything you need to know about adult day services so you will be well informed and on your way to opening a successful and profitable adult day care or adult day health care center.
This post will be a general overview of the adult day services industry. In future blog posts I will drill down into the details, providing you with all the knowledge you need start a successful adult day care center, both for the participants served and for your bottom line.
- An adult day center is a win-win-win proposition for everyone involved. It is highly profitable business opportunity, provides valuable services for the elderly and saves the states and federal government money that would otherwise be spent on costly inpatient hospitalization or nursing home services.
- Adult day centers are known by a multitude of names but are collectively referred to as adult day services. In general, there are two types of centers: the health model (adult day health care center) and the social model (adult day care center).
- All centers provide a therapeutic activity program that includes activities to stimulate the mind and body and improve the emotional functions of those who attend. The centers also have direct care workers who help participants fully engage in the program and may help with various activities of daily living (ADLs), like walking, helping someone to the restroom, or to eat. The centers also provide “protective supervision” to those who are at risk of injury due to cognitive limitations.
- Other services Adult Day Centers may provide are: meals, transportation, nursing, physical/occupational/speech/psychological therapy, social work services, dietary services, shower/bathing services and beauty salon services.
- Those who attend the center are generally known as participants or clients. As the center’s name indicates, participants attend during the day and do not stay overnight. They may attend one day a week or seven, between two and ten hours per day, depending on the state’s requirements and the center’s preferences.
Adult day centers’ primary functions are to
- Provide health care and/or social day care services during the day.
- Ensure that those who attend the center remain living in their own home and in the community for as long as possible.
- Maintain or improve participants’ physical, emotional, and cognitive health.
- Provide respite so family caregivers can continue to work outside the home while knowing their loved one is safe and enjoying the time spent at the adult day center.
- Provide a break to caregivers who may be overwhelmed with day-to-day responsibilities for care.
Participants attend an adult day center for various reasons:
- Social stimulation. Many elderly and disabled persons in our communities are isolated in their homes, with little or no social stimulation. As human beings, we require human interaction for our all-around good health.
- They require some type of nursing or therapy service.
- They may face nursing home placement.
- It is not safe to leave them alone in the home.
- Respite is needed for caregivers.
- They love the activities! (There’s a need to develop an amazing activity program.)
Please take a look at our other blogs in the series for more information.
Interested in taking the next step? We have everything you need to start your dream center, from consulting to policy and procedure manuals to our “Startup in a Box” package, training, forms, and everything in between!
Help others, help yourself, help your community. Open an adult day service center today!