Social Adult Day Services Program (SADS)
Social adult day services (SADS) are an important component of the community-based service-delivery system that helps to delay or prevent nursing home placement and the need for other very costly services, while providing vital assistance to the older person with cognitive and/or physical impairments and supporting their informal caregivers. Research demonstrates that caregivers who experience stress and burden are more likely to "burn out" and, thus, place their loved ones in an institution, directly impacting Medicaid spending for skilled nursing home care. SADS can help to ease the burden of caregivers by providing them with time to take care of other needs and address other priorities; the service also allows many caregivers to continue to work. At the same time, it addresses the basic needs of the individual needing care in a safe, nurturing, and stimulating environment.
SADS is a structured, comprehensive program that provides functionally impaired individuals with socialization, supervision and monitoring, personal care, and nutrition in a protective setting. The program also may provide other services and support, such as transportation, information and assistance, and caregiver assistance. In addition to addressing the individual�s needs for assistance in activities of daily living, these programs provide a secure environment and therapeutic activities aimed at helping participants to achieve optimal physical and mental/cognitive functioning. They improve the quality of life for older adults by reducing social isolation, and increasing social and community engagement. By doing such, they prevent or delay further deterioration and the need for more expensive services. In addition to improving quality of life for functionally impaired adults, SADS services also improve quality of life for informal caregivers by giving them a break from their ongoing caregiving responsibilities and providing them with a feeling of confidence that their loved one is in a safe environment.
New York State's Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) provide social adult day services through a variety of state and federal funding programs, including Older Americans Act (OAA) Title III-B and III-E funds, and the State-funded Community Services for the Elderly program (CSE) and Expanded In-home Services for the Elderly Program (EISEP). In addition, the New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA) directly funds 17 SADS programs under a state-funded program (Section 215 of the NY Elder Law). All NYSOFA-funded SADS programs those funded directly by NYSOFA and those funded by AAAs with aging funds administered by NYSOFA must adhere to NYSOFA Social Adult Day Care Regulations (9NYCRR 6654.20 Social Adult Day Care Programs).
Each of the 17 programs are able to provide specific programming based on the needs of the participants they serve, for example:
- Mrs. Scott is a member of our Early Memory Loss Program. She has been with us for a little more than a year, and has been maintained and thrives in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease. She is active in all programming, including the cognitive computer training, and is an avid member of the group based cognitive training. She also enjoys weekly yoga classes. She has two daughters and a son; one daughter that she lives with and is her main caregiver; her other daughter is out of the state and provides social support over the phone. Her son is a limited participant in her care; however, he does take her out on occasion to spend time with the grandchildren and other trips.
- JoAnne is an 81 yr. old woman who started attending the day center two days/week. She previously had two heart attacks, kidney failure and suffered from diabetes, CHF and HTN. She also has and is on continuous oxygen. Despite all of these health problems, her daughter, Jill, wanted to keep her at home for as long as possible. She and her
mom are very close as Jill is a single mother, and JoAnne helped to raise her grandson. Jill worked at that time;
her hours were flexible, and she was able to care for her mom on the three days that she did not attend our
program. When JoAnne's health progressively deteriorated, and she needed to be on dialysis requiring even more
care from her daughter. Jill had to quit her job to take care of her mom. JoAnne really enjoyed her 2 days at our
Center, and Jill was grateful for the time it gave her to take care of home responsibilities and to find a little time for herself. But, when JoAnne's condition progressively worsened, she was no longer able to attend. She was
discharged from our program after attending for 14 months.
Eighteen months later, Jill called to tell us that her mom "survived the odds" and was well enough and wanted to return to the day center. JoAnne seemed to be very depressed at home and missed the socialization with her peers. However, Jill said that she really needed to start working again as their finances had suffered severely with all of the medical expenses. She was grateful for the subsidized funding she received for the two days, but she did not know how she would pay for our program privately, 3 days/week, even with her new job since she will only be making $9/hr. Management presented her case to the agency's foundation, and as a result of a recent donation that the day center received, we offered additional funding that enables JoAnne to attend 5 days/week.