By 2030, the
baby boom generation will have celebrated at its last retirement parties.
Nearly 72 million
Americans will have moved from full-time workers to big-time benefits users,
and the American medical system and retirement services - and economy -
will be taxed to accommodate the largest group of senior citizens it has
ever seen.
That's not the
time to be figuring out the best way to serve older adults.
PROMISING ALTERNATIVE
The best time
to do that is now. With the elderly population growing rapidly and fewer
families able to provide at-home care, it's high time to explore and improve
their care options.
Our Forum cover
story by reporter Tony Lang examines one of the most promising of them,
adult day care.
Roughly 150,000
Americans spend most or part of their weekdays at one of the nation's 3,500
adult day care centers.
The services
they receive range from meals and orchestrated activities to personal care
and physical rehab.
A 2006 government
report showed day care to be much cheaper than the alternative of home
health aids and a tiny fraction of the cost of nursing home care.
Studies have
shown that humans age much differently when they have social interaction,
mental stimulation and a purpose to their days.
Day care centers
take elderly people out of their isolation, but they allow them to return
each evening to the home settings that they prefer.
The centers
also typically provide a meal, sometimes routine medical care such as blood
pressure checks and distribution of medicine, and oversight by professionals
who pick up subtle changes in health or behavior.
HELP FOR FAMILIES
But that's only
half their benefit. The option is an enormous blessing to families, many
of whom are scrambling to find services and trying to balance their elderly
loved one's needs with those of the rest of the family.
Many workdays
are lost to caring for an aging parent and so are peace of mind and focus
while on the job. Knowing that a parent is at a safe place all day and
getting the care and socializing he needs is essential to the mental health
and productivity of the care provider.
MORE AVAILABILITY
NEEDED
But moving the
program to a wider scale must involve more than simply opening more and
more centers. Regulation of adult day care centers is spotty at best. Right
now "adult day care" can mean just about anything, and better oversight
is needed to make sure that the most dependent clients aren't simply warehoused.
As budget-conscious
legislators intent on saving health-care must pay as much attention to
clients' dollars, they need to make sure the centers are meeting clients'
needs, not just lawmakers' financial projections.
The National
Adult Day Services Association and the National Council on Aging have developed
standards and benchmarks for adult day care but adherence is voluntary.
DEVELOP STANDARDS
Professional
organizations are developing certification programs for day care administrators,
directors and staff members as well. Clear care standards will give families
a better way to judge the quality of a day care program.
Just as we offer
graduated stages of care to young children as they make their way from
preschool to grade school, we need to offer levels of care that recognize
older adults' abilities, maximize their independence and slowly step up
the level of support they need as they age.
--
Copyright
2007 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
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