Just about everyone knows about nursing homes. All long-term care (LTC) planning advisors know something about assisted living care, home health care, homemaker services and family care.
Some LTC planners may have gaps in their knowledge about another major source of care: adult day care centers, or adult day service centers.
Few Americans send their children to boarding schools, and few hire full-time private tutors to manage their children's education. Parents typically expect to go to work during the day and tend their children in the evening and at night.
But, for older adults, Americans have tended to think in terms of nursing homes and home care with little in between.
State agencies and private LTC coordinators have been trying to spread the word about the adult day care services option.
See also: New York state to promote LTC planning
Organizers of the quickly approaching White House Conference on Aging (WHCOA) have not yet made adult day services providers and users a major focus of the event, but the providers have organized a campaign to put themselves on the WHCOA radar.
For a look at some things LTC advisors should know about adult day services, read on.
1. The National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA) has been around since 1978.
Through surveys, NADSA has located about 5,000 formal adult services centers in the United States. Those centers are serving about 260,000 adults and adults' family caregivers. The people getting help from the centers could fill a small city.
Image: TS Photo/Scott Griessel
2. NADSA has no fear of competition.
NADSA has a guide to "opening an adult day center" right on its home page.
"Given the demographics, we can expect the demand to increase beyond the estimate 5,000+ centers already operating in the United States," NADSA says.
