Not Your Grandfather's Day Care

That certain adults need day care because of age, illness and infirmities is a reality -- and a growing one in this country.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal earlier this year, the demand for individual adult day care is growing between 5 percent and 15 percent annually, with at least 400,000 people using such centers in the United States.

Two centers figure prominently locally. One, the Sarah Adult Day Services Inc., of Canton, Ohio, is a nationwide adult day-care company, founded and owned by Merle Griff, Ph.D., a gerontologist, in 1985. (In acronym form, SARAH stands for Senior Adult Recreation and Health.)

Before it began its franchise operation, known as SarahCare Adult Daycare Centers, in 2004, the company had six centers. Today, more than 30 functioning franchises exist in 18 states, with another 30 franchises in the process of being established.

The latest SarahCare center in Pennsylvania opened its doors in Jenkintown just last month. Locally owned by Arsen R. Ustayev, who will serve as its executive director, it will be the company's fourth in the Keystone State. Others are in Allentown, Malvern and Pittsburgh.

"The key to providing superior adult day-care services is to make the lives of the caregivers -- those who provide for loved ones at home -- as easy and stress-free as possible," said Ustayev, who was an activities coordinator at an adult day-care center in New York for more than four years. "We go out of our way to provide the respite needed to those caregivers who need to go to work and who can't be at home with their loved ones."

How to choose such a center? By considering "multiple factors," he says, such as "does the facility have the experience needed to care for seniors with different health-related problems, such as Alzheimer's and dementia, stroke, Parkinson's disease and more? Also, does the facility have special programming that's customized for every participant?"

The SarahCare program includes personal care, podiatry, physical and occupational therapy, exercises, pet and garden therapy, movies, and spacious living and dining rooms (breakfast, hot lunch and snack daily, with kosher food upon request) in "an upscale, country club-like setting," explains Ustayev.

'Home-Like Environment'

SarahCare is far from alone in doing what it does.

At the Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Center for Jewish Life in Horsham, Pam Throne, director of the center's Weiss Senior Day Program -- endowed by the Abram and Helen L. Weiss Fund -- talked about the program's history and its features.

Opened at the Abramson Center's former Philadelphia campus in 1979, it was one of the first adult day programs to operate in Pennsylvania, according to Throne. It was relocated to the Abramson Center campus in Montgomery County in 2002, and is now in the Manor House -- a "one-story building decorated in cheerful colors, that offers a home-like environment, that's light-filled with many windows, and has a large outdoor deck," she says.

Feher describes the Abramson Center's philosophy of adult day care: "We've kept the program small deliberately, with no more than 15 people a day to offer more individualized care, and we focus on the whole person, both the mental and physical."

At present, 17 people are enrolled, not all of whom attend every day, according to Throne.

"Adult day programs and centers have an important role within our community," she says. "We provide older adults with stimulating adult activities in a therapeutic, safe and secure environment, where they can socialize with peers, have fun and receive therapies, if needed, with wheelchair clients, for example, repositioned every half-hour to ensure their comfort."

Program services include individualized care and supervision; emphasis on personal dignity and safety; speech, occupational and physical therapy; and a professional corps, with two staff members for 12 clients, a registered nurse and a clinical psychologist.

Throne notes that activities -- of which a new one is introduced every half-hour during the day -- include gardening, cooking, sewing, woodworking and painting. Other forms of entertainment include crossword puzzles, weekly bingo, card games and the availability of an indoor menagerie of pets, including birds, bunnies and a turtle.

In addition, she says that access to the Abramson Center's lectures, music programs, "Tea & Music" series and other special events is available, and all meals at the center are kosher.