(3/31/99)

Adult day care centers are becoming a more common option for long-term care.

Five years ago, there were three licensed centers in Utah - now there are 11.

But adult day care centers may not be the best option if they don't treat adults like adults.

University of Utah gerontologist Sonia Miner studied two adult day care centers - one in the northeastern United States and one in the West.

At the first center-- she says center employees treated the patients like children.

"We saw clients who were called names such as kiddo, young lady, good girl, good boy. They were asked if they behaved themselves. We saw a setting that was very infantile, it used to be an elementary school," Miner says.

As a result of the childish treatment -- the elderly patients withdrew.

But life at the second day care center Miner studied was extremely different.

The center treated its patients like adults and offered a variety of activities.

"They were asked about their adult lives when they did recollections, they were asked questions, trivia kinds of exercises that were adults kinds of questions, such as who was the first person on the moon," Miner says.

Miner did not study a center in Utah. But an adult day care center administrator here in Salt Lake, says her staff is trained to treat their clients with respect and dignity.

Kathie Williams, of Neighborhood House says, "I've seen a lot of people come to life that maybe when they first came they just would sit there and not participate, not talk with people and after they've been at the center for a while and made friends, how they will just come alive, and start talking again, getting up, moving around."