Adult Day Care
Adult day care is a supervised programme an older adult attends during the day and comes home from at night, offering activities, meals, and personal care in a group setting while a family caregiver works or rests.
Reviewed by Valerie VanBooven, RN, BSN
What's Included
- Supervision and personal care during programme hours
- Meals and snacks, often with therapeutic diets accommodated
- Social activities, exercise, music, and cognitive engagement
- Medication administration during the day
- Health monitoring, and nursing oversight at medical-model centres
- Transport to and from the centre at many programmes
Who It's For
An older adult who should not be alone all day but does not need residential care, and the family caregiver who needs to work, rest, or keep their own appointments.
Understanding Adult Day Care
Adult day care is the option families most often overlook, because it sits outside the usual choice between care at home and moving somewhere. The person keeps living at home and spends part of the day somewhere staffed and social.
Programmes generally fall into two types. Social models focus on activities, meals, and company. Medical or health models, sometimes called adult day health care, add nursing oversight, health monitoring, and therapy for people with greater clinical needs.
Two benefits tend to matter most. For the person attending, it is structure and company, which is particularly valuable in early and middle-stage dementia. For the family caregiver, it is a reliable block of hours, which is often what makes continuing to care at home sustainable rather than exhausting.
It also tends to cost less per hour than one-to-one care at home, since staff support a group. Many families combine the two, using a day programme several days a week alongside a caregiver at home for mornings, evenings, or weekends.
Availability varies a great deal by area, and so does funding: some programmes are private pay, while others are covered through Medicaid waivers, veterans' benefits, or state programmes. The centre itself and the local Area Agency on Aging are the practical places to check.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is adult day care?
Adult day care is a supervised programme an older adult attends during the day and comes home from at night, offering activities, meals, and personal care in a group setting while a family caregiver works or rests.
Who is adult day care for?
An older adult who should not be alone all day but does not need residential care, and the family caregiver who needs to work, rest, or keep their own appointments.
Other Services
How to Get Adult Day Care
Enter a city and state below to find home care providers in the Care Across America directory who serve that area. Contact them directly to ask whether they offer adult day care and to get pricing for your situation.