Annual Report 2010 - Gifford Medical Center

Gifford Adult Day Program participants and
staff created a fall display for Vermont Adult Day
Services Week in September. The program keeps
seniors and the disabled active and safe.
hospital division
The best kept secret in long-term care:
the Gifford Adult Day Program
Across Vermont and in our own communities, many
of our seniors are living alone, in unsafe conditions, and
unable to perform life’s daily tasks like making meals and
bathing. Still others rely on the care of a family member,
often a spouse who is also older, or a child who works and
cannot provide the 24-hour care required to safely and
adequately support our seniors in need.
For these individuals as well as disabled adults, there is
a care option often termed “the best kept secret in longterm
care.” That option is adult day services. Adult day
programs bridge the gap between independent living and
nursing home care, provide respite to family caregivers and
are a safe alternative to isolated seniors.
There are 14 such centers in Vermont, including one
right in our own backyard in Bethel.
The Gifford Adult Day Program began in 1999.
Located below the Bethel Health Center on Route 107,
the program provides participants with medication
management, medical supervision, showers, nail care
and other personal hygiene help, healthy meals, plenty
of activities, transportation to and from the program and
perhaps most importantly, a safe environment. The care is
provided on a sliding fee scale and often with the help of
state and federal sources, such as Medicaid and Medicare.
In 2010, the Gifford Adult Day Program cared for 34
area seniors and the disabled.
When she looks back over the year and sees how many
of the participants have improved physically and mentally,
Adult Day Director Judy Santamore is amazed. “It’s
dramatic the change in them.”
One participant has lost 50 pounds with improved diet
and exercise despite mobility issues. Another – a young
woman with a traumatic brain injury – has regained
mobility and balance, learned more appropriate social
interactions, improved her communication with others and
gained needed weight. She is safer and happier in these
surroundings.
“Adult Day care has really been good,” says her mother,
Penny Miller of Bethel. “I can’t say enough. She enjoys
going. She’d like to go every day.”
Eighty-nine-year-old Evelyn James, known to all as
“Chichi,” has been attending Adult Day for eight years,
following a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and a referral from the
Council on Aging.
Stagecoach picks Chichi up weekdays at 7:30 a.m. in
Brookfield, where she lives with her son, Bob Beaulieu,
and his wife. She participates in activities with staff and
other seniors, then returns home at 4:30 p.m. Bob calls the
program good for his mother.
“It keeps her active.” says Bob, noting she also receives a
healthy meal, is bathed two or
three times a week and “is well
provided for.”
The program is also needed
respite for Bob and his wife
from the stress and physical
exertion of caring for an elderly
parent with dementia.
“It’s been a wonderful
experience,” says Bob. “If it
hadn’t been for Adult Day, I
don’t think we’d be able to
keep her at home as long as we
have.”
For Bob, Chichi and the
dozens of others helped, the secret is clearly out.
“I can’t say
enough. She
enjoys going.
She’d like to
go every day.”
Penny Miller,
Bethel
Annual Report 2010
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Gifford’s Best Kept Secrets