"Day Care Can Really Help Seniors Come Out"

by Xazmin Garza
Senior Press
April 2004

An adult day care center is just what the implies: day care for adults. Although the name is self-explanatory, most people have a difficult time getting used to the concept of a service traditionally used for children being used for adults.

Once the idea has settled in and the services are employed, however, it usually becomes something its beneficiaries can’t imagine living without.

Not having the permanence of a nursing home, yet not exactly the freedom of living independently, adult day care centers provide a happy medium that so many family members and friends of participants long for. Oddly enough, though there is a desire for assistance, actually taking the step of enrolling someone in the program is usually the hardest part.

“The responsibility of caring for someone can be so overwhelming at home that there’s a relief when they are brought here, but it’s a guilty relief,” says Jana Coffman, social worker for Hollyhock EOB Adult Day Health Care, provided by Community Action Partnership. “We give the primary caregiver the relief they need so they can stay together. That’s our ambition here: to keep the family unit together.”

Surprisingly, a majority of caregivers that aren’t children of participants, but grandchildren. These relationships make for an easier transition, according to the staff at Hollyhock, with the inevitable role-reversal that takes place when someone with children takes ill. “The expectations are so much different with a grandchild and grandparent than with a child and parent,” says Administrator Mary Jo Greenlee. “The parent usually resents that their own child is having to care for them and that makes it difficult for the child too. As for the grandchild, they’ve always thought the world of their grandparent and are more willing.”

The participants at Hollyhock aren’t bedridden and the center doesn’t have any hospice patients. The majority of the Hollyhock participants suffer from some degree of dementia and simply can’t be on their own anymore. Participants usually start the program in a fairly healthy state and with time become increasingly more dependent.

The activities the center offers vary from bingo to card games to music therapy. Hollyhock also brings in outside entertainment for the participants like tap dancers. “When they see me they’ll say, ‘Who do we have coming today?’” says Gayl Anderson, activities director. “We do a lot of different things with them. We’ve done mock weddings and this month (March) we’re doing the Academy Awards.”

The music therapy classes are one activity that is very popular. Judith A. Pinkerton from the Center for Creative Therapeutic Arts conducts them. “It’s not meant to be entertainment,” says Pinkerton of the program that is held twice a week at Hollyhock. It may not be intended as entertainment, but judging from the laughter and overall glee that comes from the participants taking the class, they are surely entertained.

Pinkerton takes them through a series of songs during which participants use a variety of instruments and familiarize themselves with patterns and tones. “It’s engaging them in singing and bringing them out and allowing them to express themselves. It increases their socialization and helps reduce anxiety and depression,” says Pinkerton.

Another class offered at Hollyhock is especially for victims of a stroke. Jane Martin teaches this class and uses “range of motion” exercises to help these participants regain their motor skills and work on coordination.

“Therapists will do these exercises with patients after they’ve had a stroke, but they don’t teach the families how to carry them on,” says Martin. She goes through several different exercises including the hands, feet and sometimes both. Participants who are further along in the program give beginners encouragement with clapping and pats on the back. “One of the participants couldn’t even talk when she came here,” says Martin. “Now she’s communicating, moving and making a lot more progress.”

The average stay for a Hollyhock Participant is anywhere from three to five years. Once their stay has expired, it’s usually due to a hospital visit that leads to a need for further care.