The Care Club of Collier County is an adult day care center located in Naples, Florida. Open since 1993, The Care Club is a not-for-profit organization that provides day care for people afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease and other memory disorders. Executive Director Luanne Wahlstrom tells me that most of her clients are senior citizens, although there are some younger people who have had strokes or head injuries. The  Care Club is licensed to serve 41 people. Wahlstrom says that during the winter months, the “high season” in Naples, they operate at full capacity; at other times they average around 30 clients.

The Care Club is open from 8:30am-4:30pm. Wahlstrom says they keep clients busy with a variety of activities, including singing, exercise, board games and bringing in outside entertainment. While there is a nurse on staff, she says the program is more  social than medical. They also provide clients with breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack.

According to the website, The Care Club of Collier County administrates a sliding-fee scale of rates, and does not turn anyone away for financial reasons.

To learn more about The Care Club of Collier County, visit http://www.colliercareclub.org/index.htm. For a complete list of adult day care facilities in Florida, as well as other senior living facilities, visit Florida Senior Living

Advisor.

Confession time… I’m visiting family in Tennessee this week so I’ve been neglecting my blogging duties a bit. Late yesterday I remembered that I had not yet written this week’s “Friday’s Featured Facility.” (That’s the problem with starting a regular feature such as this – you create a natural deadline for yourself!) I decided I wanted to write about one of Florida’s adult day care centers, but which one? A quick search of my Florida Senior Living Advisor database lead me to All One Family Senior Day Programin Merritt Island. Two minutes into my conversation with owner Stephanie Licavoli, and I knew I had found a great senior facility to feature.

Stephanie explained that she and her sister-in-law Karen Wilkes decided to open their adult day care center after their family members had bad experiences in other facilities.

“They would come home with urine-soaked clothes,” Stephanie explained. “And she was left sitting in front of the TV all day and then be up all night when I got her home.” Those personal experiences have helped Stephanie and Karen create a facility that they say is “completely different from any other senior day care.”

According to Stephanie, Florida law only requires that an adult day care center keep its clients busy 60% of the day, so many only meet that minimum requirement. All One Family keeps its clients busy the entire day, alternating between physical exercise and mental stimulation.

“In many centers, all you see are recliners and television,” she explained. “We don’t have any recliners. We play games, we go outside and we have a Wii game that they love.” Stephanie said they also focus on treating clients with respect and dignity, regardless of their physical or mental limitations.

All One Family is open from 7:45am-4pm Monday-Friday, but Stephanie said they are very flexible because she knows from experience that caregivers have needs outside of those times. “If a caregiver wants to go out to dinner, or if you are running late, we don’t charge anything extra for that.” All One Family is licensed to care for 24 people. Their current average is 15-19 per day. The cost is $68 per day, but here again, Stephanie said they are flexible and will work with people who have financial limitations.

Adult day care can be a wonderful option for someone who wants to care for their elderly loved one in their own home, yet who has work or personal commitments during the day that get in the way. There are more than 150 licensed adult day care centers in Florida. It’s clear to me that All One Family is one that is setting a high standard for quality.

To learn more about All One Family, visit their website at www.allonefamilyseniordayprogram.com.

I’m starting a new segment on the Florida Senior Living Advisor blog today called “Friday’s Featured Facility.” Every Friday I’ll tell you about one of the more than 3700 senior living facilities in Florida, everything from assisted living facilities, to nursing homes, continuing care retirement communities, hospice, skilled nursing units and adult day care centers. If you’d like to recommend a facility for me to feature, send it to me at mitra@flseniorlivingadvisor.com.

The inaugural “Friday’s Featured Facility” is Guardian Home Health in Spring Hill, Florida, about 60 miles north of Tampa. This is actually an assisted living facility, but the name “home health” refers to the fact that it is located in a single-family home. The facility is licensed to care for six residents. Of the nearly 3,000 assisted living facilities in Florida, about half have a capacity of less than 10.

Owner Elaine DeCiutiis runs Guardian Home Health, along with her husband Frank and daughter, Paulamarie Aurigemma. DeCiutiis and Aurigemma are both certified nursing assistants and have backgrounds in health care administration. They opened the home last October, with the goal of providing very personalized care to each elderly resident.

“When I’ve gone to big nursing homes, I see people just sitting there and doing nothing,” says DeCiutiis. “We try to keep them active. We play cards.  We discuss current events. We go to the movies or out to lunch.”

DeCiutiis also tailors each meal to the residents’ taste as much as possible.

“You could say we spoil them,” she says with a laugh. “But at their age, they deserve to be spoiled.” Residents are also offered a shower every day, a service that is often not possible in larger facilities where there may not be enough staff to accommodate residents in this way.

For more information on Guardian Home Health, you can visit their website at www.guardianhomehealth.org. You can also call 352-688-8832 or send an email to edecuitiis@tampabay.rr.com.