Overview
Too often, adult day services (ADS) are misunderstood as being just for older people. While the people who attend some centers are adults, disabilities and the need for services are not limited to older adults. Adult day services support the health, nutritional, social, and daily living needs of adults of all ages and a wide range of cognitive and physical disabilities in professionally staffed group settings. Adult day services also benefit family caregivers by enabling them to remain in the workforce as well as providing them with direct services.
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 ADS centers across the United States, adult day services and adult day healthcare 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 ADS (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 its 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.
Learn from the Latest National Research
RESEARCH ROUNDUPS
April 2021
August 2020
April 2020
February 2020
November 2019
August 2019
May 2019
February 2019
October 2018
May 2018
National Study of Long-Term Care Providers
- Differences in Characteristics of Adult Day Services Centers by Level of Medical Service Provision (released 2020)
- Differences in Characteristics of Adult Day Services Centers, by Level of Medical
Service Provision - Long-Term Care Providers and Services Users in the United States: Data From the National Study of Long-Term Care Providers, 2015-2016 (released 2018)
- Long-Term Care Services in the United States: 2016 Overview State Web Tables and Maps (released 2018)
- Quickstats: Percentage Distribution of Adult Day Services Centers, by Type of Service — National Study of Long-Term Care Providers, 2016 (released 8/2018)
- QuickStats: Percentage Distribution of Long-Term Care Staffing Hours, by Staff Member Type and Sector — United States, 2016 (released 5/2018)
- QuickStats: Percentage Distribution of Adult Day Services Center Participants, by Place of Residence — National Study of Long-Term Care Providers, United States, 2016 (released 1/2018)
- Tables on Use of Electronic Health Records and Health Information Exchange among Adult Day Services Centers and Residential Care Communities from the 2012 and 2014 National Study of Long-Term Care Providers
Genworth Cost of Care Survey
Leutz Evaluation of the Medical Adult Day Services (CMS) Demonstration
MetLife National Study
National Adult Day Services Association
- National Adult Day Services Association Research Positioning Statement
- NADSA Research Positioning Domain Map
NADSA continues to be a key supporter in the development and promotion of the National Study of Long Term Care Providers (NSLTCP). This collaboration has been valuable in ensuring that NSLTCP captures the unique characteristics of adult day services centers and the important work they do in meeting the diverse needs of the nearly one-quarter million elderly and young disabled participants they serve each day (Long-Term Care Services in the United States: 2013 Overview, National Center for Health Statistics).
NSLTCP is designed to collect information about the characteristics of adult day services centers, including the services they offer, participant fee revenue sources, staffing, and demographics and health status of the participants they serve. The information collected through NSLTCP is used to inform the CDC overview report on the major types of long-term care providers that include adult day services centers, assisted living and other residential care communities, home health agencies, nursing homes, and hospices.