Adult Day Health Care Services

The need for low-cost innovative Adult Day Health Care has grown dramatically in recent years.  In the many multi-ethnic communities throughout California, the very frail elderly and the aging developmentally disabled are particularly at risk of becoming completely isolated and no longer able to take care of their most basic needs.  In poverty-stricken city neighborhoods and rural-areas, these frail, often chronically ill, elderly and dependent residents have few resources.  Many become unnecessarily and acutely ill simply because they forget to take their prescribed medications.  In too many instances, shortened lives, premature and costly institutionalization, and loss of dignity and independence are the inevitable results.

Life Steps Adult Day Health Care Centers offer a comprehensive program keyed to individual needs.  We provide door-to-door transportation, on-site nursing, management of medication, physical and occupational therapy and rehabilitation, social and recreational activities, breakfast and a hot noon meal.

Life Steps' first Adult Day Health Care Center, Circle of Friends, was established in 1994 to serve a low to very low income multi-ethnic population in Inglewood, California.  A second Adult Day Health Care Center, known as a Wisdom Center opened in 1999, is located in the City of Santa Maria.  It serves low income, frail elderly minority residents of North Santa Barbara County.

From a health maintenance perspective, our most spectacular successes lie in the area of physical rehabilitation, a critical component of the program.  Through participation in intensive physical and occupational therapy, not only do many of our elders hold the line on failing physical abilities, many also improve so much that they are able to more fully participate in the life around them. Socially, our innovative, consumer-driven programs reflect the diversity of the areas we serve.  At all our sites, we include "under one roof" programs geared to the principle cultures of the area.

An Inclusive Model: By fully integrating aging developmentally disabled people who suffer from the same diseases although often at a somewhat younger age as their fellow ADHC participants, we add a unique component. Growing numbers of people with developmental disabilities are reaching an age when their former circles of support (parents and other relatives and friends) are no longer able to provide the levels of support needed to maintain independence, health, and continued community residence. Adult Day Health Care can fill the void.

A Replicable Model: Our society has entered a new millennium and all indications point to the fact that the elderly population of the United States will continue to expand in both numbers and as a percentage of the country's overall population.  In that context, our Adult Day Health Care Center program design makes sense: it is a high-impact, cost-effective, replicable model which can meet many of the healthcare challenges of a rapidly growing aging population in the decades to come.