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Adult Day Health Care Helps People Remain Safe at Home
Most people prefer to remain independent, live in their own homes or communities, maintain family/friendship ties and keep stress manageable despite ongoing issues. However, people who live alone can suffer from depression, chronic health problems, loneliness, a reduced sense of purpose, fear over health issues and loss of sense of self.
For people who need ongoing long-term care services and want daily interaction with other people, an Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) program is a good solution. ADHC fosters independence and optimum functioning. It assists the family or caregiver by providing health services in a setting that accomplishes these goals while adding social activities, essential for wellbeing. Services include nursing care, medication management, social work services, physical, occupational and speech therapies, dietary counseling, pharmacy review, and case management. These services are provided amid a day of activities that includes a minimum of one meal. As an alternative to a nursing home, ADHC provides people the care they need while enabling them to continue to remain at home.
The benefits of ADHC include increased mental stimulation and interaction with others, less worry about health issues, increased mobility afforded by attending a community-based program, decreased potential for low-mobility related complications of chronic illnesses. Services and activities are tailored for people with all levels of disability — physical, cognitive and visual, to facilitate participation; interaction with others that have similar issues; and creates a supportive environment and therapeutic activities often missing in those who are isolated at home.
Lighthouse Guild’s ADHC program–GuildCare–includes specific services to help people with vision loss or conditions such as diabetes. GuildCare is specially designed for people with vision loss and physical/cognitive disabilities.
Positive Outcomes
According to a recent study1, ADHC is another option in the continuum of community-based long-term care that is associated with improved quality of life. The services ADHC provides maintains the individual in community life, increases confidence and feeling of self-worth through socialization and peer interaction, improves or maintains the individual’s maximum level of independence, prevents or delays costly long-term care alternatives (nursing home), reduces unnecessary hospitalization by providing ongoing health monitoring and ultimately, restores and rehabilitates the individual to their highest level of functioning.
Adult Day Health Care services are eligible for payment by Medicaid, Medicaid Managed Care, and Veterans Health Administration (in some areas) as well as some health insurance and private pay.
1 Source: The Gerontologist, Volume 57, Issue 6, December 2017, Pages e85–e94, https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnw165
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Lighthouse Guild is dedicated to providing exceptional services that inspire people who are visually impaired to attain their goals.
