PEABODY –– National Adult Day Services Week is Sept. 21-27, and Shapiro-Rudolph Adult Day Health Center Executive Director Eleanor Langstaff emphasized the importance of adult day services.
“We’ve all heard of caregiver burnout,” she said. “It can even lead to medical conditions, so for the family to get that relief, get that break, even if it’s just six hours a few times a week, that’s huge.”
She added, “We’ve had families come to me beyond burnt out, and their loved one starts coming, and the family feels so much more relaxed. They’re sleeping better, and they can go back to work, you know, they can start taking care of themselves because they’ve put that off for so long (while) taking care of their loved ones. So it’s really beneficial, not only to the folks who come here, but also to the caregivers.”
Langstaff said that, since there are medical staff present at the Center, “We’re able to administer medications, including injections… so any medicine that they (attendees) need during the hours that they’re here, the nurses are allowed to give.”
She added, “We also monitor vital signs, weights, at least once a month, so if we notice any significant changes, we’re able to communicate that to the family and the primary care physician.”
According to Langstaff, Shapiro-Rudolph Adult Day Health Center’s goal “is to keep people both physically and mentally active (and) engaged for as long as, you know, to kind of slow the progression of the disease so that they’re able to stay living in the community at home for as long as possible.”
Langstaff said this goal is actively being met due to the various activities the Center has available for its attendees, including word games, bingo, and musical performances. She added that there is even one attendee who has a green thumb, and he has been helping in the garden outside in one of the Center’s two patios.
While the Center has the medical facilities necessary to care for its attendees, it has a very “homey” feel, and there is even artwork up on the walls that attendees have created themselves. She added that the Shapiro-Rudolph Adult Day Health Center allows people to have an “environment to socialize.”
Activities Assistant Maggie Anderson has been working at Shapiro-Rudolph Adult Day Health Center since 2006, and she mentioned that her mother Marilyn Anderson was an attendee for almost 11 years. She said, “our clients become an extended family.”
“Everybody here is treated with the same respect. We try to engage each person. We celebrate their birthdays. We commiserate their losses. When we lose the client, it is just as heartbreaking for us as it is the families,” she said.
When asked how to emphasize the importance of Adult Day Services Week, Anderson said:
“What I would like the world to know is that, unfortunately, when we tend to look down on elders… Why can’t we be patient with those who were patient with us when we were little? It’s the great circle of life. We have to give back. We have to ease them into the end of life the way they ease us into life… No matter what their cognitive ability, their physical ability, their emotional ability, everybody deserves to be seen.”
Anderson joked, “I’m probably going to end up being a client here down the line. I hope I get the same care I’m trying to give.”
