RUTLAND — For almost 30 years, InterAge Adult Day Program has hosted special needs participants each week day, providing meals, activities and respite for their caregivers.
On June 30, the program — the only care center of its kind in Rutland County — will close its doors due to financial struggles that have been punctuated by Covid-19. The decision, posted on InterAge’s Facebook page last week, has sent area caregivers who depend on the program searching for other options.
The Southwestern Vermont Council on Aging, which helps caregivers and special needs residents in Rutland and Bennington counties devise long-term plans for care, has been navigating families through the closure.
Without another comparable day program in the county, services director Dana McMahon says many area caregivers must now choose between providing the care themselves, driving to day programs in other counties, or considering other assistance options, including sending loved ones to nursing homes.
McMahon works with one family that was only able to delay admitting a loved one into a long-term care facility because of the daily relief provided by InterAge.
“Going back to InterAge was that glimmer of hope for the family, knowing they could do this for a little bit longer,” she said. “We are scrambling with them trying to explore all the different options that are available. … Unfortunately, I think there’s not something that’s going to fully meet the need of what losing an adult day provider has given to a lot of folks.”
The program was born when Rutland-based Community Care Network, which eventually became InterAge’s parent company, decided with several other area care agencies that the county needed an adult day program, which was a fairly new concept at the time.
Stafford Technical Center hosted the first four participants, who interacted with children at the preschool program there — giving the program its name. Since then, the program has seen several new locations, and a significant expansion.
According to Community Care Network’s 2019 annual report, InterAge provided 24,869 hours of service to the 52 participants involved in the program last year. The program saw 24 participants, on average, every day.
InterAge Director Loryn Hamilton has worked at the center for almost 20 years, and in her role as director for 14. In an emotional phone call, she lauded her staff of five full-time employees and three part-time employees, who provided for participants of many ages and a varied range of needs.
“We serve people that have all kinds of medical and cognitive issues; Adult Day isn’t just Alzheimer’s,” she said. “It’s a real challenge to come up with activities that are functionally appropriate for all of the different physical abilities and some cognitive, functional abilities.”
InterAge is the second adult day program out of 13 in the state to shut its doors in recent weeks. Barre’s Project Independence (PI), which ran in partnership with Gifford Retirement Communities, closed permanently on June 1, citing a decrease in participant numbers and an increase in program costs.
“Gifford has made a number of efforts to improve PI’s financial outlook, including exploring potential partnerships for collaboration or transition of the program,” Project Independence wrote in an emailed statement to community partners and supporters. “However, with the additional stress of the Covid-19 pandemic, our discussions on the future of the program accelerated and left us with few options.”
Hamilton said InterAge received funding from the state, including a Paycheck Protection Program loan and continued Medicaid retainer payments. InterAge’s doors have been closed since March 19.
But the aid wasn’t enough.
“Couple this extended closure, no reopening date in sight, and the financial issues that we had been having,” Hamilton said, “and it just — we just couldn’t make it work. We tried everything. We had discussions after discussions, talked with the state, talked with my board. We can’t make it work.”
Proctor resident Jane Wilson took her 94-year-old father, who has dementia, to InterAge four days a week, allowing her to run errands, visit the doctor, and take time for herself.
“I’m so sad,” she said. “It totally gave my father some social interaction, because I’m his only caregiver. He got to play games and do puzzles. Here, I think he just gets bored. I try to keep him busy, but I have things to do.”
Wilson, too, may need to consider enrolling her father in a long-term care facility as a result of InterAge’s closing.
“It’s a huge loss for the community,” she said. “Huge. Because I know there were many people that really enjoyed bringing their loved ones there, who knew they would be safe and cared for.”
