THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996 TAG: 9601210051
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
Today's Sunday, so Edna Martin can't go to the ``senior citizens.'' But don't remind her; that would only cause her to become distraught.
The 79-year-old Virginia Beach woman, who suffers from dementia, spends five days a week at the M.E. Cox Adult Day Health Center in Virginia Beach with the ``gang,'' as she calls the other older adults who are too frail to be left at home alone all day.
Martin is one of about 120 older people in South Hampton Roads who spend all or part of each week in the region's seven adult day-care centers.
The centers, which charge between $20 and $32 a day, provide a place for their elderly clients to socialize and a break for clients' relatives, many of whom wouldn't be able to care for their aging relatives without the respite the centers provide.
As the region's population ages, particularly with more people moving here for retirement and bringing with them their elderly parents, the demand for such centers is increasing.
Two months ago, Sentara Life Care's Virginia Beach Adult Day Health Care raised its licensed capacity from 30 to 50 people. Sentara also is considering beginning similar centers in other cities. At the same time, it is preparing to open a new form of an adult day/health care center this spring, which will combine medical care with the social setting a traditional day-care center provides.
Also, M.E. Cox is in the midst of a $550,000 fund-raising campaign to pay for a new building, which would enable it to care for 15 more people than the 30 it currently serves.
And the Norfolk Senior Center, which runs two adult day-care centers in Norfolk, lacks only funding - not customers - to increase the number of clients it serves.
``There's a definite need for more centers here, because some cities aren't even served,'' said M.E. Cox director Sharon Goumas.
The clients her center serves, she said, ``would be in an institution if they weren't here.''
``It seems to be the perfect service for a group of people who are capable of being dressed and out of the house with support, and who can benefit from being in a community-based setting,'' said Barbara Lifland, Norfolk Senior Center director.
Adult day-care is not a new service in this region. M.E. Cox and the Norfolk Senior Center have had programs for 21 years.
These programs provide a structure for their clients' days, explained Reba McClanan, an M.E. Cox board member. Without it, many older, demented adults would be awake half the night, keeping their caregivers up, too.
But at the center, their day is filled with so many activities - miniature golf, calisthenics, walks, field trips - that by evening, they're tired and sleep much better.
Involvement in a center also helps to slow mental and physical regression by keeping clients active and involved, Lifland said.
Gail Mitchell's mother has been at the M.E. Cox Center for two years. During that time, the 87-year-old woman, who suffers from dementia, has evolved from someone who ``never had any friends, who was a hermit her whole life,'' to someone who is ``totally with people and loving it,'' Mitchell said.
But the day may come when Mitchell's mother is too feeble to stay at the Cox center. That's where Sentara's new program comes in.
The innovative program, called the Senior Community Care Center, is scheduled to open in Virginia Beach this spring. It will be the first in Virginia to provide the skilled care of a nursing home in an outpatient, day setting.
Participants, all of whom must meet requirements for admission to a nursing home, will spend the day at the Sentara center, where a team of physicians, nurses, therapists and social workers will continually assess their physical and mental state, providing necessary care.
In the evening, clients will return to their own homes or their caregivers' homes. Sentara also may provide assistance in the clients' homes by hiring nurse aides or companions to enable the clients to stay out of an institution.
But this model won't replace the traditional adult day health care, said Bill Miller, Sentara Life Care assistant administrator, which Sentara still views as a ``very critical piece'' in the range of community services for the elderly. ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN color photos/The Virginian-Pilot
Myrtle Gray, 92, is greeted at the M.E. Cox Adult Day Health Center,
which is raising funds to expand its facilities.
The Cox center fills clients' days with structured activities,
helping to slow mental and physical regression.
by CNB