The Benefits and Cost of Adult Day Care
January 22, 2012 by admin
Filed under Daily Living, Featured
Adult day care centers benefit both the caregiver and the elderly family member. They provide much needed respite for the caregiver, as well as providing the elderly family member with a way to get out and socialize with others and be a part of a social program to stimulate physical, intellectual, and/or emotional well being.
Caring for an elderly family member can be extremely demanding – especially if you are still working full-time. Even if you are not working outside of caregiving, Adult Day Care provides needed respite for you. Often Adult Day Care is a must, but you know it’s important that your loved one is well cared for during the day.
Adult care programs vary in their services depending on the facility and the needs of the aging parent. Some offer therapies (such as physical, occupational, speech). Others offer music programs, arts & crafts projects, discussions on current events, and times of reminiscing and visits from many community volunteers of all ages. Adult care programs all offer the ability to visit the facility before choosing one.
The cost of an adult care program varies depending on the location, the type of facility and the activities offered. Locally a full day of adult day care costs between $60 and $80 per day. Most have a sliding scale, which is offered to lower income families, making it affordable for almost every budget.
However, it still places extra demands on the budget. Potential ways to offset cost of adult day care include Medicaid, some long term care insurance plans, Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), Veterans and Medicare Advantage Part C. To find out about funding available in your area, review the individual programs to see what type of coverage is available.
If you need help with finding facilities in your area or sorting through the requirements to qualify for getting your loved one into the facility, you can contact Lisa at The Shifting Path: By phone: 408-219-7231 or by email: lisa@theshiftingpath.com
In some ways its kind of scary to think one day I may need “day care” thank you for sharing whats available and what we should think about.
Thanks for sharing about this Lisa – I didn’t even know adult day care existed. This will be really helpful for people needing some respite during the day.
I am thankful that I own my own business, which will give me a wider variety of options when the time comes to make difficult decisions. I love that there are so many activities and opportunities for seniors to socialize, learn and continue to grow.Reading this, helps spur me to want to uncover even more of those options that are in my city. Thanks Lisa.
Isn’t it great that we now not only have day care for kids and pets but also our older citizens? Really important for them and for their families. They have something to contribute to the conversation at the dinner table about their ‘day’ too.
Lynn
Lynne, You are so right! It is important that we are able to feel valuable and sociable with others in order to share more with our family as we get older. Adult day care is so important for both the caregiver and the care receiver!