How do you manage getting to adult day care?

Talk to each Adult Day Care program that you are considering. Some may have transportation services.

taimedowne: Perhaps you can start with the COA (Council on Aging) in your mother's town. They should be able to provide transportation to day care. My mother's small New England town provided transportation to doctor and dental appointments, grocery shopping, retail shopping, etc. My mother was also a legally blind woman. Of note is that the driver of the senior vans typically assists the elder embarking and disembarking.

In my area, the county social services have rides.
Somethng concernd me though...she needs to contact an agency. Does this mean she is left alone at times? How can she call 911 in case of an emergency like a fire? Please ask her PCP if she should be left alone any longer.
Someone mentioned using nursing students which I must caution. Students are not licensed. Nor do students get much info on elder care until they do clinicals. They are learning about A and P plus pharmaceuticals. Even working in a hospital takes about a year of experience to learn about dementia care. For volunteers you might get young students who know little about safety or older ones who have families and may not have the time.
I do agree that a day care would offer social enhancement with others like her. Stagnating at home might just further progress her disease

Are adult daycares meant for people with moderate dementia? I'd think they wouldn't be able to meet her health and safety needs.

I think one of the first steps you should take is finding a place with OPENINGS! We are on a two year wait list. There's no sense in worrying about transportation if you can't get her in. Oh, on another note , have you looked into how much Adult Day Care costs? Where I live, it's $100/ day, and they request at east two days per week.

You need to research transportation through MediCare / MediCal, etc.
Look on this website directory - there are many.

I googled this and found many. Best if you streamline by adding your county to streamline the search.

Google: "Transportation for low income seniors"
Google: "Transportation for low income seniors in xxx (county)

Call your local City Hall "Senior Services Dept"
Call your Board of Supervisors
Discuss with social worker
Ask primary care provider for referrals (to social services)
Post sign (index card size) at bulletin boards: Churches, colleges.
Depending on need, call College Employment office and post need.
* you would need to pay someone and do ask for copy of DL and copy of their car insurance, and references.

Gena / Touch Matters

Call the adult day care places and ask if they offer transportation. Visiting Angels or Care.com might be the solution, they are great opportunities for "stay-at-home" moms to make some money.

My husband used our local bus. Since they recieve federal funding they must supply aid for disabled. With dementia, my husband qualified. They have small accessible vans and specially trained drivers that would come to our home, help him from the door to the van and drive him to his adult care center. Then, after a few hours this would happen in reverse and they would return him home. I scheduled this with the bus service to be an ongoing regular appointment.
Later, after our local adult day shut down, I hired a vetted driver through my local Area Agency on Aging (called the NW Regional Council in my county) to drive him to the next town over where they still have adult day care.

You mentioned that she would like to go to church. I suggest that you or family members take her to a local church to help her with familiarity. Then ask the minister if he could ask congregation (perhaps through the parish newsletter) if someone could provide a ride on weeks that your family could not.
For an adult day care, could a neighbor put her on the van/bus and her aide be there when she returns?
Best wishes

Please consult with her PCP to determine her " level of care needs " and, hence whether at this point she is safe to go to " adult day care". Reading your description of her challenges, honestly, leads me to question whether she would be safe or even find quality time at adult day care. There are a lot of questions that her PCP needs to be a part of in considering her quality of life and safety needs now.
Perhaps, it may be time to consider possible facility placement options for her since it sounds like, as with most families, there are limited options for someone being in home 24/7 with her, which is either where you are now or will be soon.

I suggest that you select a daycare, then one of the questions of the daycare will be the one that you posed.

in my community, there is a service that must be scheduled in advance. However,I believe they will not go into a house or knock on an individual condo. However, it is flat rate, somewhat not time reliable, but very, very caring of all abilities.

I’ve heard of some taxi companies doing what you might want. However, I’m pretty sure they may not want to wait for your mother to get ready to go or ensure that your Mom is safe inside her place or wait to leave until after you mom is admitted through the door.

I would suggest you ask the day care person.

Many churches offer rides to appointments for those who are unable to drive themselves. You might research such programs in your area and offer to pay them for the services. Also many social services have transportation programs for those who have difficulty getting around. Able bodied senior citizens who are retired would be available to help, too. Is there someone locally who also uses the day care that you could ride share?

Thanks for the responses.

We have a city sponsored shuttle service that will take her anywhere for $0.25 but she isn’t able to use it because it requires making reservations in advance and she can’t do that herself. Frankly, it is rather difficult to schedule and they make other stops along the way to service others and it just seems too complicated for her to use.

Also, they will only wait at the curb and I really need someone who will come up to the house to get her, especially until she settles into a routine and learns to wait on the sidewalk at a certain time.

She has no issues getting into a car and behaving once inside so one person is fine. She even took a plane flight by herself. She just needs someone to meet her at each end of the trip.

It is funny you mention church because that is another place she would like to go but she has no way to get there and back. The parishioners at her old parish wouldn’t mind taking her but she would have to go to a new church now since she moved and she doesn’t know anyone there. I thought about talking to the priest about her situation to see if he had suggestions on how to get her to and from church on Sundays.

The Adult Day program that I had my Husband in would pick participants up each morning in a van and they would return them about 4 PM.
Contact the program that is in your area and find out if they provide transportation.

My Moms Daycare oicked her up at 8am and left her off about 3am. At 3am her aide could be there to meet her.

We have community transportation services that bring folks to our Senior Center. The driver who picked up a frail, elderly lady on Tuesday was so caring and sweet.

There is a county wide transportation service in our community that is available to seniors and other people who are unable to drive.

The typical routes include supermarkets and malls, routine medical visits and some social activity sites. Information should be available from your county information sources.

Another option may be students from a local nursing school. Perhaps you could pay 2 nurses-to-be to take or pick her up from the ADC. I would want 2 people to handle someone with dementia not only to be able to assist with entry to the vehicle but so one could monitor the MIL while the other drove. One person might be able to handle it (for a while at least) if you have a vehicle with child locks like a minivan. MIL could ride in a second row with a seat belt and the doors set to not open from the inside (also easier to enter with the door sliding cimpletely out of the way). I've found if you turn the seat belt fastener (at the seat) 180 degrees, many people with vision problems or dementia have great difficulty unbelting the belt but you can easily turn it slightly and undo the fastener.

If not nursing students, you may also be able to find someone from EMT or fire fighting organizations - someone who wants some extra pay, maybe someone who retired recently.

Your senior center admins may also have some ideas.

I sourced a couple of very dependable ladies to stay 2-4 hours at a time with my mom after she became bedridden from local churches. They were older ladies who had raised their families and liked having some extra money to spend on their grandchildren.

My experience is there is usually a fairly economical solution out there if we can think about where we might find the type of person we want to help and then the gumption to ASK for that help.

Many Adult Day Cares provide bus transport to and from their sites.

Call your local Area Agency on Aging to find out what services are available.