Adult day care in Windsor giving caregivers a break at Dignified Day

 

A new program for adult supervision and care that started last fall is giving caregivers in Windsor a break.

Last Saturday, the operations of Dignified Day hosted an open house to get the word out about their adult day-away program, which is open every Tuesday and Thursday for anyone older than 18.

“James, what do you like to do here, do you like colour?” Stephanie Moore, food service and operations manager, asked one of her clients, James.

“Colour!” he responded.

“Do you play cards sometimes?”

“Yeah! yeah! yeah!”

“Who usually wins?”

“I, yeah! Yeah! Yeah!”

James is a middle-aged man with intellectual challenges. Like other clients, he plays crosswords, paints and makes breakfast with employees at Dignified Day — fun for him but also a break for his family.

There is a kitchen, TV and many other things to do inside the Dignified Day, so clients can enjoy a variety of activities.

“Really, (we provide) anything our clients enjoy doing,” said Moore. “We get some ladies together, and play some cards, we really just like to tailor the data to what our clients like and (what their) interests are.”

Dignified Day has been around since September last year. It provides part-of-day or full-day supervised programming and care for dependent adults, such as individuals with developmental disabilities and the elderly.

Different from most other supervised programs aimed at teenagers, Dignified Day provides services for all ages of people. Moore said there are not many groups in Windsor that provide these services.

“When someone with a delay graduates high school, it’s usually between 20 and 21 when they leave the high school and then there is not a lot for them,” said Moore.

Moore and her sister Erin White, the wellness and recreation manager, created this business. They are doing other jobs at the same time and they both work in long-term care nursing right now.

Moore said although it’s challenging to balance two jobs at the same time, they feel happy working at Dignified Day, because their clients are like their family.

“I love it, it’s just kind of what I think we are meant to be doing,” said White. “It is rewarding to see that we are helping families and people.”

Moore said they have five to six clients regularly and now they are trying to extend the business to ten to 12 clients.