Myerson, others hope Northshore adult day program gets state funding

Sitting in Bothell’s Northshore Senior Center enjoying a hot lunch surrounded by others who face some of the same difficulties she does, Barbara Myerson, 71, said a year ago she was suffering from depression among other health problems and ready to move into a nursing home.

As what Myerson called a last-ditch effort to turn around her health, she was referred to the adult day health program at the Northshore Center.

“It turned my life around,” Myerson said.

Northshore’s adult day program provides medical care from staff nurses, physical rehabilitation, meals and activities, all designed to get senior citizens and disabled persons moving again and increasing the quality of their lives, said the program’s Judi Pirone.

At sites in Bothell and Kirkland, the program currently serves approximately 260 persons ranging in age from 21 to 106.

“In a lot of ways, it’s really life saving,” Myerson said.

Having dodged budget cuts at the county level, Northshore’s adult day program now faces the possibility of the elimination of all state support, according to Northshore Director Lee Harper.

Harper said at least $900,000 in funding the center would have received from Olympia is missing from the new budget proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Harper said loss of the dollars would not mean the end of local adult day health programs, but said many seniors and others who receive Medicaid — about 50 percent of the program’s participants — could be shut out.

“It would make it really hard to stay open at the same level,” Harper added.

Harper and Pirone both said the governor’s office regards the proposed cuts as money savers, but both also contend the facts don’t support the state’s argument.

Myerson directly credits the Bothell program with keeping her out of a nursing home. According to information provided by Harper, if just 10 percent of the state’s adult day health clients receiving Medicaid move to nursing homes, the cost to the state would be approximately $12.4 million. All in all, the state contributes about $10 million to adult day health annually.

Again according to information supplied by Harper, when Oregon shut a major adult day health program, one year later 50 percent of the former participants were in nursing homes or some other type of high-care facility, while 25 percent had died.

Adult day clients usually visit centers such as Northshore for five hours at a time at least two or three times a week. Pirone said the visits reduce hospitalizations, can prevent elder abuse and serve as a respite for home caregivers.

The Northshore Center provides transportation to and from its programs. Besides the basic health checks and meals already mentioned, the center has an exercise room that can accommodate those in wheelchairs, a computer room with adaptive devices for use by the disabled and a sort of health spa, with foot care and other services available.

“Everything is done for a particular reason,” Pirone said.

Northshore and other adult day centers are lobbying legislators and asking anyone interested to contact their specific lawmaker or call a legislative hotline at (800) 562-6000. Center members were scheduled to take part in a lobbying day in Olympia Feb. 3. Lee said Northshore was sending at least a bus load of participants and supporters, including the center’s 106-year-old client.

A recent House Ways and Means Committee bill restores funding for adult day health, but that bill still must be approved by the entire committee and the state House as a whole, as well as the Senate and the governor’s office.