Daybreak

"Sue's conversations with the others have drawn out more stories and details from them than they've ever previously shared. We love having her." -Daybreak Staff

It was July of 2019. My mom was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and her health was declining fast. After she walked 3 miles of highway in the middle of the night, we arranged for her to stay with my family for awhile as we researched safe living options. It was a whirlwind of decision-making in those days and the moment we thought we had a good plan, Alzheimer's had a different one. My mom opted to keep her diagnosis private due to stigma, which made reaching out for help nearly impossible.

Life in 2019 was filled with parenting two little humans with one on the way, a new job at the cancer center, grad school, guards, school board... Soon, we would all experience Covid.

I needed help.

Coincidently, I ran into Carmen Spurling at the Avera Quality Congress event. Carmen is the Caregiver Outreach Director at Active Generations. We had not previously met and I just happened to stop by her vendor booth for a little advice about how to support my mom (and my kids and my sanity) while she stayed with us.

?? Let me stop here for just a second to offer a little background on the landscape of adult day services (ADS) and how it currently looks in South Dakota:

• Community-based adult day programs first started popping up in the US around the 1960's.
• Until 2024, there were only 3 adult day programs in South Dakota, primarily in metro areas.
• In 2023, SD advocates helped secure $2 million to expand adult day services in South Dakota.
• SD legislators also increased the budget to improve the ADS reimbursement rates.
• Since 2023, new centers have opened and ADS attendance reimbursement rate has increased by 121% (yay!).

Fun / Horrible Quick Tip: 
There are over 16,500 South Dakotan's living with Alzheimer's disease and over 27k unpaid caregivers. There are 15 (FIFTEEN) geriatricians. 
(Did you read that right? Yes. Yes you did.)        

There is still plenty of work to do, mostly around respite care access and operations. Stay tuned for more on the history and opportunities around Adult Day Services.

When I explained to Carmen that my mom refuses to acknowledge her disease, is very active, and still maintains plenty of skills and cognitive abilities, Carmen suggested that they invite her to "volunteer" at Daybreak. It makes me choke up just writing this. Carmen has no idea how meaningful that conversation was to me, even to this day. There is so much heart and compassion in an offer like that. The day of "volunteer orientation" arrived and my mom flitted around, helping members prepare for meals and activities. But most of all, she did what she always did best; she talked. My God, she talked. I have notes of all the people she met that day. They swapped Midwest stories of mutual friends and geography just like you do at church coffee. She said to me at the end of the day, "These ladies need this program. This is great for elderly people."

Mom moved into assisted living the following week, then memory care soon thereafter. But her time at Daybreak was monumental for our family.

She not only received safety that day, she received dignity.

Resources:

2024 Alzheimer's disease facts and figures. Alzheimers Dement. 2024 May;20(5):3708-3821. doi: 10.1002/alz.13809. Epub 2024 Apr 30. PMID: 38689398; PMCID: PMC11095490.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). (2014). Regulatory review of adult day services: Final report, 2014 edition. https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/regulatory-review-adult-day-services-final-report-2014-edition-0

National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA). (n.d.). Historical highlights. https://www.nadsa.org/about/historical-highlights/