Adult day care and service centers are defined as community-based group programs that are designed to meet the needs of functionally and/or cognitively impaired adults through an individual plan of care (Johnson, Sakaris, Tripp, Vroman, & Wood, 2004). In an ideal state, these programs are structured and comprehensive, providing a variety of health, social, and other related support services in a protective setting during any part of a day but less than 24 hour care. Adult day care centers generally operate programming during normal business hours Monday through Friday, serving an increasingly large number of the approximately 34.7 million individuals aged 65 and over in the United States (Johnson, et al, 2004). However, while there are approximately 4,000 such programs available today, it is projected that as the baby boomer generation continues to age, there will be a need for at least 10,000 such centers within the next 10 to 15 years (Whirrett, 2002).
Because this is the case, the research problem addressed herein centers upon two issues. First, it seeks to identify the challenges to providing adequate programming to a growing population of older Americans in need of some type of day care service. Second, it seeks to identify the specific resources which must be brought to bear in developing programs that do more than merely warehouse older individuals without providing meaningful services. The issue is significant, according to Kuzuya, Masuda, Hirakawa, Iwata, Enoki, Hasegawa, and Iguchi (2006), because a substantial number of individuals presenting for adult day care services have a variety of comorbid health or mental conditions along with specific physical, medical, and psychological needs which cannot be met without assistance from professionally trained health care providers and social workers.
The National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA) (2009) called for creating standardized criteria that would a...