Families push state to reopen adult day health care program

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- As the state slowly reopens, one program critical to hundreds of local families is still shut down. There is now a push to bring back adult day health care programs.

For Parkash Chaudhri, life changed the minute the pandemic hit. The 90-year-old has dementia, and her adult day health care program was shut down. She attended the Day Timers program at Jewish Senior Life five days a week.

"Everything was taken care of, the day-to-day medical care as well as her physical and mental care," said her daughter, Rajbala Thakur.

Rajbala and her husband started taking care of her mother at home during the day. They are one of 600 families affected in Rochester.

"The benefit of the program is that it delays nursing home placement, it prevents nursing home placements, and it prevents preventable hospitalizations,” said Anne Hill, Executive Director of the Adult Day Health Care Council.

The program provides day services to people with chronic illnesses, developmental disabilities and dementia, like Chaudhri. Hill says the impact of the shutdown has been devastating.

"Individuals are in crisis, caregivers are in crisis and the state has the ability to solve the problem by reopening adult day health care programs,” said Hill.

Families are pushing the state to do just that. Chaudhri cannot wait to return to her program. Her daughter says she looks outside for the bus that used to pick her up.

"If we are opening restaurants, that's a socializing thing. This her need, this is her life. It is important for her,” said Thakur.

The New York State Department of Health released a statement in response to the families pushing to reopen the program:

“We all want to see Adult Day Health Care programs reopened in a safe manner and understand the difficulty this virus has caused those with disabilities and their families. While we continue to monitor how and when they can safely reopen, our goal is to foster independence and enhance quality of life by using telehealth to offer the right mix of services and support, while keeping this virus out of congregate settings such as Adult Day Health Care programs as asymptomatic spread remains a concern in all corners of the state. The telehealth model allows recipients to receive multiple health care services such as physical and occupational therapy and coordinated case management to ensure continuity of care is maintained during this pandemic. We look forward to permitting these programs to resume in-person services at the appropriate time.”