No sane person will now or ever doubt the clinical value of adult day health care programs. Even regulators are seeing the need to expedite licensing and accommodate entrepreneurs who embrace this business model as the best option for longer-term patient stabilization post hospital discharge. While many programs were established for the elderly with dementia, we are now seeing programs with multiple populations including the mentally ill and the medically fragile with dementia at an earlier age.
More and more specialized therapies are being used including art, music and dance. However, these cannot be used solely for recreational benefit. Note this language from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services: “Activity therapy, such as music, dance, art or play therapies not for recreation, related to the care and treatment of patient’s disabling mental health problems, per session (45 minutes or more)”. Click Here for a wide array of web resources that should prove informative.
The point of this blog is to reinforce the need for center management to be very diagnosis oriented. There needs to be properly developed, regularly updated Plans of 
Care and an ongoing, well-managed relationship with program participant physicians. This ensures that those you serve have all of their needs met in a consistent, comprehensive manner. This includes those managing mental illness.
It is the center that is not focused on such a comprehensive approach that will not survive the next ten, (10) years. The center with these clinical elements as a core part of its operation will serve its community most effectively and will continue to solve problems for families, hospitals and others.
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