GREENFIELD — The decision to send a loved one to an aged-care facility is usually a difficult one, often resisted by the elderly individual or their family or both.
An adult care program in Greenfield may serve as a bridge between living at home and moving to a full-time facility. A center in Greenfield run by the non-profit Gardner Visiting Nursing Association offers daytime care to the elderly and disabled weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., as well as home visits by nurses. The program provides meals, medical assistance, plus a variety of activities including pet therapy, musical guests and chair exercises.
The care program may allow its participants to stay at home longer, Director Sheelah Buedinger said. It also gives family members a break from their caregiving responsibilities, she said.
“What we provide here is a safe environment where caregivers either go off to work, run errands for themselves,” Buedinger said. “It gives them peace of mind.”
Also, as the program offers medical care, nurses may identify a health issue before it develops which may prevent visits to the doctor or hospital, Buedinger said. The program also has a social component, she said, allowing guests to interact with neighbors and form friendships with each other.
“We’ve seen a lot of people flourish and develop friendships and relationships,” Buedinger said. “We’ve seen them engage in conversations where they might not otherwise. We might be talking about a certain topic and it might jog a memory that they have and they’re willing to share that for that moment — remind them of something when they’re younger or a family gathering.”
One program held year-round involves sewing and knitting teddy bears and blankets for the Shriners Hospital for Children in Springfield. Last Friday roughly 30 participants presented several dozen brightly colored bears and blankets to the hospital.
“There were tears out there today, of just joy,” Activity Director Julie Clark said. “It just brought everybody closer here, made everybody happy, made everybody smile — it’s just wonderful the stories you hear from them — my parents taught me to knit or my parents taught me to sew, or my mom made my clothes.”
The sewing project was started by Clark’s mother about five years ago, with the center beginning to donate to the hospital two years later. Clark said participants can return to bear-making any time throughout the day.
“We have all the video games … but no one ever really thinks about picking up a needle and thread,” Clark said.
Caregivers attest to the benefits of sending their loved ones to a day program. Peter Vearling chose to send his wife Judith, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, to the care program last year. While he said he doesn’t want to send his wife to a full-time facility, his wife’s condition is far along and she must be monitored constantly. She is unable to perform everyday tasks like reading, writing and turning on the television.
“You live minutes at a time,” Vearling said. “You have to be constantly vigilant. And you don’t know what your duties are. There’s nothing predictable.”
Maryelise Lamet enrolled her husband Sterling — who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in Jan. 2015 — in the Greenfield program last fall. Lamet said the program has a number of benefits, offering her “respite do to the business of running the family business” as well as giving Sterling a community to lean on.
“It’s not an easy role,” Lamet said. “It’s a pretty lonely role. We’re co-living their lives to facilitate them being still in our lives.”
The Gardner Visiting Nursing Association has adult day care locations in Greenfield, Athol, Fitchberg and Gardner. Its Greenfield program is located at 489 Bernardston Road. For more information, visit https://www.gvnahealthcare.org/.
Reach Grace Bird at gbird@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 280.