Jeanne Sager | Democrat A PRIDE OF Lions celebrated the renaming of the Adult Day Care (also known as adult day healthcare) at Catskill Regional Medical Center this week. The Town of Fallsburg Lions’ Club donates $3,000 annually, proceeds from its Alan Steingart Memorial Golf Tournament, to the hospital. Until recently, the hospital showed its thanks with a sign naming its health center after the Lions. But the closure of the health center gave the Lions a chance to pick another program to help. They are now splitting their donation between adult day healthcare and the skilled nursing unit, on which Steingart was once a resident. Celebrating naming of the Adult Day Care center were, from left, Lions club member and CRMC CEO Steve Ruwoldt, Lions Club Past President Stuart Wizwer, Lions Club Secretary Miranda Behan, Lions Club Past President and Treasurer Seymour Berenson, Lions Club President Bart Rasnick, and Lions Club Past President and Co-Chair of the golf tournament Bruce Perlmutter.

Adult healthcare in
a hospital setting

By Jeanne Sager
HARRIS — Blink and you could miss it.
Adult day healthcare is nestled in a small corner of Catskill Regional Medical Center.
The door is just off the side entrance to the ambulatory services building – at the farthest end of the facility.
But the program doesn’t need prominence of place to do good work.
For 11 years, adult day healthcare has been giving folks who would otherwise be homebound a place to go.
What makes the program different from other adult daycares is the health aspect that can be provided in a hospital setting.
“People have to have medical needs to come here,” explained Director Kathy Anderson. “They can’t just be looking for a place to go.”
With a registered nurse on duty at all times, plus a licensed practical nurse and two certified nursing assistants, adult day healthcare keeps up with glucose monitoring for diabetics or walks folks down the hall for their physical and occupational therapies.
Cancer patients can stop in at the second floor oncology center for their appointments, then return to the program one floor down.
“They don’t have to miss a day of [the] program just to go to therapy,” Anderson explained.
Beginning with a continental breakfast, the program offers a range of activities seven days a week – karaoke, birthday parties, senior exercises. There’s a patio with a grill and a retractable awning for sunny days, and lunch comes right to the registrants.
Able to accommodate 19 people a day, the program has a list of 24 folks who circulate in and out, usually spending at least five hours on hospital premises a few days a week.
What makes the program so important, Anderson said, is the opportunity it provides for the registrants to remain vital members of society.
Because of their medical needs, many of the folks who make use of adult day healthcare would otherwise be stuck at home with a visiting caregiver.
“We help people in their homes too,” Anderson said, “make sure they have the services at home that they need.
“It doesn’t just stop here when they leave, it goes home too,” she said of the program.
Usually unable to drive, the registrants are provided with transportation by the program – paid for by Medicaid.
In fact all of the services are provided with Medicaid footing the bill – only people who qualify for that sort of funding an apply to take advantage of the CRMC program.
Medicaid has made the program available to people as young as their 40s, Anderson said, all the way up to 105.
“It has given them a sense of well-being,” she said of the folks she’s met in 11 years on the job. “It gives them a place to go, to be a part of.
“We’re like a big family here too,” Anderson continued. “It’s been a very heartwarming experience.
“We keep them out of a nursing home, keep them in the community.””