A Maryland senior care center that has been a support system for many families, providing older adults with care and community, announced it will be closing in March due to financial hardships.
The Jewish Council for the Aging of Greater Washington (JCA) said it has supported the non-profit Albert & Helen Misler Adult Day Center with $5 million over the past nine years with government and private support and fees participants pay falling short of financial need.
The center must employ one person for every three or four participants and provide specialized transportation for them, JCA said.
JCA said it is losing $2,000 per day on the center.
While the center was faced with a heavy financial burden, the families of individuals who have utilized the facility are now faced with a loss of stability.
“My mom is very empathetic and she would notice somebody that wasn’t in a good mood that day, and she would automatically get up and go sit by them and hold their hand,” said Kathleen Peyton, whose 93-year-old mother, Peggy, attended the center. “It was really heartwarming for me to see that underneath all that Alzheimer’s, my mom was there.”
Steve Raucher, whose wife Helen has attended the Misler Center five days a week, felt deeply connected to it, remarking that he often volunteered there.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
“I am able to continue to contribute beyond simply being her husband,” he said. “That’s only because I know she’s OK.”
Families have run into issues with locating a new adult care center for their loved ones.
Raucher was faced with the difficult decision of placing his wife in residential care.
“You know, 58 years we’ve slept in the same bed, and I’m not sure how she’s going to feel about sleeping alone,” he said. “And that’s a bridge we’re going to have to cross.”
