Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 27, 1994 TAG: 9409270109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When his condition worsened in 1992 and he required diapering, the Lynchburg home said it no longer could help him. Then the Bedford Day Care Center for Adults opened up.
Now Mabel Heath has a place to take her husband during the day where he can get the care he needs and still live at home.
For 19 Bedford County families, the six-room day-care center, inside Bedford Baptist Church, has been the only thing standing between their loved ones and a permanent stay in a nursing home.
But the center operated at a deficit last year that was more than half its $72,000 annual budget - about $3,200 a month. And that forced Bedford County Memorial Hospital, which runs the center, to announce that it will close the day-care center by Jan. 1 unless it can increase enrollment and financial contributions enough to make it break even.
Monday night, the Bedford County Board of Supervisors made a one-time appropriation of $5,000 to help keep the center open.
Since August, when the hospital first announced that it might have to close the day-care center, individuals and businesses have sent in more than $4,000 in contributions. But there's still a long way to go.
The day-care center's projected budget for next year is $105,000. Although 19 people are enrolled, an average of nine or 10 may be at the center on any given day.
The day-care center is being evaluated by the Department of Veterans Affairs. If the center gets the VA's stamp of approval, it can clear the way for veterans such as Heath to attend the center five days a week with VA funding.
Bedford County Memorial Hospital estimates it needs at least 17 people there on a daily basis for the center to stay afloat.
"If this closes, I don't know what I'll do," said Janice Cox. She works two jobs. Her mother, Erma Duncan, has Alzheimer's and goes to the center five days a week.
With a $25-a-day cost reimbursable by Medicaid, the center offers a centrally located and affordable alternative to private care or nursing homes and allows families a respite from caring for loved ones.
Families who don't qualify for Medicaid may seek financial aid from the nonprofit Bedford Community Health Foundation, the day-care center's largest contributor and most ardent lobbyist.
At the center, two full-time geriatric nurses have their hands full caring for patients. They also work with an activity director to keep patients busy with a schedule that includes singing, gardening, meals and field trips.
The center also provides families with a staff trained to understand Alzheimer's. Of the 19 people enrolled at the day care, 15 have Alzheimer's, one had a stroke, and three younger people have physical handicaps.
Before she went to the center, Erma Duncan would stay up all night, angry at her daughter for leaving her alone during the day. Now, her daughter said, Duncan's "a totally different person. She's much easier to deal with."
Heath said the center has worked wonders for her husband.
"At home, he would just sit there, restless or pacing back and forth, back and forth. At the day care, they sing, my husband plays ball, he gets up and dances sometimes.
"They know how to handle him. When I pick him up, he's happy, he's smiling. We're really fortunate to have this day care. This is the best thing that's ever happened to Bedford."
Nancy Carter, a certified nursing assistant at the adult day-care center, said "it broke my heart in two" when she heard that the day care might close.
"Some had a hard time coming through the door, but now it's just like home," she said, leading an older Alzheimer's patient by the arm so he could look through the window at the trees and flowers outside.
"This place, it's my future too. What if I need it as a senior citizen? Or if I was in a car wreck tomorrow, where would I go?"
by CNB