Day care center for adults closing
A center that provides day care for adults with dementia and disabilities – while giving their caregivers a break – is closing due to state funding cuts.
Holy Family Adult Day Center in Spokane Valley, a place where clients enjoy recreational activities while getting regular health screenings and nursing care, will close on Dec. 3.
The closure of the seven-year-old facility hurts 55 clients who have grown attached to a familiar routine that includes caretakers and friends.
For the past several weeks, staff has transferred small groups of patients to Providence Health Care’s two other adult day centers, located in north and south Spokane.
On Friday, Beverlie Mott, who is on full-time oxygen and lives with her brother, sat with two friends and lamented the upcoming move.
Next week the three friends will separate as two transfer to the North Side center and the other moves to the South Side facility.
“I’d rather stay here, but they won’t let me, so I have to do what I have to do. Some of my friends won’t be going to the same place I go to,” she said, with tears in her eyes.
Her friend, Margarette Withers, also teary, replied, “I’ll miss her really bad. She’s my buddy.”
Jim Lippold, executive director of Holy Family Adult Day Centers, which have operated for 26 years, said changes in state regulations and low Medicaid reimbursement rates caused the closure.
“It was very reluctantly that we felt we had to do this. We believe that by consolidating, we’ll at least be able to (remain) open,” Lippold said.
Regulations geared toward saving money have tightened criteria to qualify for day-care services funding, so there are fewer clients. For those who do qualify, the state pays $43 a day for care that costs $51 to provide.
After debilitating hip injuries and repeated surgeries left Homer Mason’s wife, Jean, homebound and socially isolated, the couple enrolled her in the day center.
“It made the entire difference in her life, it was a complete necessitation.”
Mason, 87, feels the interaction is important to his wife, but will be forced to drive across town to pick her up for doctor appointments.
Although Judy is only 55, she suffers acute dementia, which robbed her of rational thought and the ability to communicate. Like Alzheimer’s patients, Judy needs constant supervision so she doesn’t wander away or hurt herself.
As the full-time caretaker for his wife, Dave Schmidt gets a break from the constant stress of watching Judy, which allows him to keep caring for her in their home.
“You can’t just push her away and desert her,” Schmidt said. However, “If it wasn’t for this five-hour-a-day break, I couldn’t handle it, I think.”
Schmidt also attends a center support group where caregivers share experiences and exchange strategies. There, he learned to place a black rug or bag on the floor, which deters some dementia patients from wandering past that area.
Linda Fairhurst, manager of the Valley site, said transporting people by bus is particularly hard on those taking water-reduction pills and people in the latter stages of Alzheimer’s.
A 93-year-old Alzheimer’s patient is entering a nursing home because she can’t handle the change in routine.
Staff members will move to the other centers and three people throughout the organization will lose jobs, said Sister Barbara Baehr, RN. She has been writing instructions that detail clients’ special needs, like silverware with extenders.
“Sitting down to do this, you realize all the little tweaks that make that person an individual.”
As M.J. Smith, 90, geared for the move, he took things in stride. “I’m here to do what I’m told, not what I damn well please. I’m too old to do it any other way.”
Sitting one seat over, Ralph Carrasco offered another opinion. “I don’t like it, but what can you do?”