Characteristics of dementia-specific day programs

Adult day programs are a rapidly growing alternative for community-based care for the elderly, but there are few descriptions of dementia-specific programs in the gerontologic literature. We present the first overview of such efforts in the United States with a national scope, using information provided by a pool of 283 applicants to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Dementia Care and Respite Services Program. Results show program consistency in hours of operation and use of professional staff, and variability in sources of funding and size of the community served. On the average, participant fees accounted for less than 25 percent of total revenues.