About NADSA
Our Mission
To advance the national development, recognition and use of Adult Day Services.
Definition for Adult Day Services (ADS)
The NADSA Board of Directors has redefined Adult Day Services to help clarify to a wider ranges of audiences what services ADS provides and who it represents in our senior and adult communities. Those audiences include legislators, agencies, payors and caregivers. As the only national organization solely representing Adult Day Services, NADSA wants to ensure all the industry’s constituencies have a clear understanding of the critical role ADS plays in the continuum of long-term care. We hope you will incorporate this new definition into your marketing materials and where appropriate, encourage your state ADS association to adopt this definition for use in its communications.
New definition: Adult Day Services is a system of professionally delivered, integrated, home- and community-based, therapeutic, social and health-related services provided to individuals to sustain living within the community.
Who We Are
The National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA) is the leading voice of the rapidly growing Adult Day Services (ADS) industry and the national focal point for ADS providers. Our members include Adult Day Services center providers, associations of providers, corporations, educators, students, retired workers and others interested in working to build better lives for adults in Adult Day Services programs every day. We are positively impacting the lives of participants, families, communities and our nation.
NADSA is a professional membership association that has succeeded in establishing an influential presence for adult day services at national policy and legislative tables. Our organization draws outstanding leadership from across the United States. Our accomplishments have included the development of national recommended operating standards and guidelines, initiating nationwide surveys and national accreditation, as well as developing curricula for professional development geared to the needs of adult day services managers and direct care workers. Our most recent state association partnership membership initiative is strengthening and mobilizing a nationwide network of organizations and leaders.
National Adult Day Services Association Strategic Plan
NADSA carries out the mission through efforts guided by the staff and Board of Directors (BOD). In 2024, NADSA undertook a 10-month review process to develop the 2025-2028 Strategic Plan. Click the the following link to view the priorities that represent short-term and long-term priorities which are updated annually. NADSA Strategic Plan
History
The organization formed as the result of more than 75 people who attended the National Council on the Aging’s (NCOA) 28th Annual Conference in St. Louis, MO, in 1978 who advanced a resolution for NCOA to serve as a focal point for the adult day care field.
A National Task Force on Adult Day Care was named and work began. The National Institute on Adult Daycare (NIAD) was formally organized as an NCOA unit in 1979. NIAD changed its name to the National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA) in 1995 to better reflect the trends of the rapidly growing industry to focus on day services. The name was also more inclusive of centers providing day care, day health and/or respite.
Our programs help Adult Day Services supporters:
- Become an active voice influencing decisions at the national level
- Save money on training and resources
- Gain valuable insight from experienced adult day services colleagues
- Stay informed about timely important issues affecting adult day programs and the people using the service
- Acquire referrals for new participants from a listing on our website.
Please join us as we build a strong, responsive association.
For more information, please contact director@nadsa.org.