Active Day of Somerset is a place filled with people who love.
Whether it is painting fingernails on fingernail Friday, playing an impromptu game of indoor corn hole or singing karaoke, the community at Somerset Active Day, an adult day care serving mentally and physically disabled adults, is always looking to have fun.
“Everything we do has a purpose,” says Mary Oakley, the center’s director.
The people who come to Active Day, referred to as clients by the staff, are a diverse group of individuals who range in age 17 to 97. They have been everything from railroad hobos to carnival workers and they have been dealing with a variety of issues, including Alzheimer’s disease, developmental disabilities, stroke and heart attack recovery, and even loneliness.
Clients’ last names are kept private. For many of them, Active Day is the only time they get out of the house to have any sort of socialization.
“I like the people,” says Sue, a regular client of the center.
Adult day care is not only good for the clients, but also for their families, who get much-needed time for work, chores and errands. Somerset Active Day is one of two adult day care facilities in the county. The other is Pulaski Adult Day Services.
The goal of the staff is to provide good-quality, supervised health care, but this is becoming more and more difficult to do. All but one of Somerset Active Day’s clients are sent to the day care through Medicaid, but as expenses for running the center keep going up Medicaid payments remain the same, putting strain on Mary and her staff.
“It makes it hard for us to provide some of the quality we would like to,” says Mary. Her staff and volunteers make it it easier, she says.
“We have the best staff,” says Mary. Workers include nurses, speech pathologists, physical therapists and community volunteers who provide many services. They bathe, feed and entertain clients. Active Day has four buses that provide transportation to and from the center for about 85 percent of the clients. Others are brought by their caregivers.
“The bunch I have now are here because they want to be here; it’s not just a job,” says Mary.
The community of staff and clients is very tight-knit. Keri, one of the clients, says she loves being part of the group.
Mary Oakley says many probably would stay at Somerset Active Day 24 hours a day if they had the option.
“What they have here is their lives,” she says. Mary and the staff and volunteers of Active Day are trying to make each life as full as possible.
