About Adult Day Services

Adult day centers offer a wide array of services to address the range of conditions and needs presented by participants and their caregivers. With more than 7,500 Adult Day Services centers across the United States, Adult Day Services and adult day health care are a growing source of long-term care. Adult day programs serve as an emerging provider of transitional care and short-term rehabilitation following hospital discharge. Adult day programs are designed to help adults receive the services they need without having to reside in a long-term care facility. Along with easier access to necessary support, adult day programs offer the opportunity to establish relationships and connections between those who attend adult day centers, their families and those who work in adult day centers. Connections and relationships are essential ingredients to overcoming loneliness and feelings of isolation, which can intensify the impact of disease and disability. The physical environment and the program design of Adult Day Services provide safety and structure for participants. The center staff builds relationships and creates a culture that supports, involves, and validates the participant, which forms the framework in which therapeutic activities, health monitoring, and all the services offered by the center occur. All therapeutic components of Adult Day Services (meals, activities, interactions with staff and other participants, personal care, nursing and therapies) are reinforced by the warm, caring affective tone of the center.

The National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA) has responded to growing demands among public and private funders that Adult Day Services be able to document effectiveness and value in the services they deliver. This documentation takes many forms in many different areas and NADSA has worked diligently to develop a uniform set of standard outcomes measures in the last several years. In 2015, NADSA completed a document of suggested outcomes providing reliable and valid markers of the effect of ADS on participants and their caregivers, which was presented at the annual NADSA conference in Phoenix.

Review the Outcomes Project Results

These projects were ongoing and much of this work was published by Keith Anderson and others from NADSA in the Journal of Applied Gerontology in 2018. Building on this momentum, NADSA proceeded to update it’s Research Positioning Statement in late 2018 and completed this process in August 2019. The following pages provide the full Positioning Statement and 5-year plan, as well as the domain map to help visualize NADSA’s Research Position.