Daniel and Genevive Barbeau-Nassar have recently opened a new and different kind of day care center for older adults in Venice, Florida. What makes their business unusual is that All Smiles Adult Day Care Center is primarily financed by for-profit providers. In addition, All Smiles offers more security for participants in the program who tend to wander -- a common trait among the cognitively impaired elderly.
New programs in senior facilities are certainly needed since, according to the National Adult Day Services Association, the population enrolled in such centers is growing at an annual rate of 5.5 percent. All Smiles just opened this past March and is the only private adult day care center in the Sarasota area. It provides for adult day care in two locations, can accommodate 60 participants in Sarasota and 52 in Venice, and has the advantage of providing a 33-patient locked facility to keep patients prone to wandering safe. So far, they have a small number of patients, but, by all accounts, those patients are receiving fine, personalized care.
A woman with a father in the All Smiles facility, to which she and her mother were referred by Senior Friendship Centers, had, before finding All Smiles, been unhappy with the care their father/husband was receiving in Florida. The daughter, a healthcare worker herself, says that All Smiles was appealing because it has "everything lined up, A to Z."
The Nassars were in an excellent position to establish an adult day care facility since both have extensive experience caring for elderly relatives with Alzheimer's disease -- Nassar's father and Barbeau-Nassar's grandparents. Beyond having a working knowledge of caring for loved ones in this particular situation, Barbeau-Nassar, 36, who already had a bachelor's degree in psychology and had worked in banking, went back to school at Argosy University and USF Sarasota-Manatee to pursue her intensified interest in healthcare administration.
Their goal is to keep the day care residents happy as well as healthy and clean, and to enable caregivers to experience respite without guilt since their loved ones are being so well-tended.
As our national population ages, we have to explore new ways of keeping our older citizens healthy and entertained during their declining years. For advice about various types of excellent elder care, Medicaid eligibility, and estate planning, you should consult with an informed and reliable Florida attorney who specializes in the field.