After 10 years of providing a variety of programs to adults with memory loss, the Elizabeth and Tab Williams Adult Day Center of Senior Services has been recognized as the country's top adult day center.
The award was formally presented to the center yesterday in Raleigh by the National Adult Day Services Association. The award has been given since 2007, and this is the first time that a North Carolina program has won.
"It's a place to get them engaged in normalcy," said Jean Small, the vice president of Senior Services Adult Day Services. "We try to make our environment normal for a person with memory loss."
The criteria for the award included creative programming, specialized services, and community partnerships. No one from the association visited the center, Small said.
The adult day center exemplifies what such a center should be, said Teresa Johnson, the communications director for the National Adult Day Services Association.
"It is an excellent hub for meeting the needs of participants and their families -- medically, physically, socially and mentally," Johnson said. "They have done that so professionally."
The center opened in May 2000 and provides support, supervision and health-care monitoring to 250 people a year. The center is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and costs $50 a day. Some financial help is available for those in need, Small said.
The center is on Melrose Street near Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. There is a garden for residents. Inside, the rooms are filled with light and color. Residents can gather as a group or find a comfortable nook off to themselves.
Most people come to the center on the recommendation of their families, Small said, and they often stay until they need to move to assisted living or nursing care.
Many of the residents can no longer enjoy such activities as reading or watching movies, Small said. Memory loss often makes it difficult to follow a plot or take in the movement and sounds of a video or television program.
The center offers meals and a range of activities that they can still enjoy, Small said. That includes puzzles, basket weaving, pet therapy, Wii bowling and exercise.
When Scott Trotter moved his mother, Joyce Trotter to his home in Winston-Salem from Wisconsin, he worried about her being on her own during the workday.
His mother, who has dementia, wasn't ready for assisted living or a nursing home, he said.
"This has brought new life to her," he said.
mgiunca@wsjournal.com
727-4089
Wesley Young contributed to this story.
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