In 2006, Santa Maria resident Abigail Garcia went to visit an ailing friend of the family. The woman had been sick for some time and was living in a skilled nursing facility where she could receive around-the-clock medical care.
The visit, though only about an hour long, made a powerful impact on Abigail, whose then-84-year-old mother Anita had recently been diagnosed with severe dementia.
“She told me, ‘Whatever you do, don’t put your mommy in here,’” Abigail said.
But even before she heard that heartbreaking plea, Abigail said she knew she would never put her mother in a home.
“It’s not even an option,” Abigail told the Sun.
At first glance, the two Garcia women are like reflections in a generational mirror: equally slight in stature, with wiry, peppered hair and small but affable smiles. Obviously, they mean the world to each other.
The widow of a pastor and mother of nine children, Anita lives alone in an apartment off of Broadway in Santa Maria. And while she has her bad days, she’s still able to function with the help of her daughter and in-home caregivers.
If, someday, Anita can no longer live on her own, Abigail said that she would gladly take her mother into her home. Until then, Abigail stays busy, making sure her mother stays comfortable and safe.
For three days a week and every weekend, Abigail stays with her mom, preparing her meals, helping her dress, and making sure that she eats right and doesn’t have a life-threatening fall.
She gets some much-needed help from employees of the Santa Barbara County In-Home Support Services program. And sometimes her siblings and children offer to share what many people would likely think is a burden.
But Abigail doesn’t see it that way.
“It’s all about love,” Abigail said. “I don’t know how I do it, but I do it. I won’t put my mom in a home.”
So when the doctor told Abigail that she needed to get her mother out of the house, she knew she had to do something. The doctor explained that Anita’s vitals were fine, but she was deteriorating just sitting at home.
The only problem was time. Abigail had to work. The $500 that Anita received each month from the government barely covered her rent, let alone the cost of bills and in-home care.
“Financially, it was really hard,” Abigail said. “In-home care costs about $400 to $500 per month, sometimes per week.”
That’s when she found the Wisdom Center, a Santa Maria-based facility offering comprehensive adult day care and health care.
Located near the intersection of South Broadway and Donovan, the center is packed into one long room, similar to the multi-purpose room of an elementary school.
Vibrant pictures and pieced-together puzzles featuring whimsical summertime scenes are lovingly displayed on the walls. Daily essentials—such as coffee, Sweet’N Low, napkins, and toothpicks—sit out on white plastic tables.
The center, which was established in 1994, is state funded through MediCal and run by the nonprofit Life Steps Foundation. It provides a plethora of services to seniors, including adult day care, health care, nutritional services, transportation, physical therapy, and more.
The center also provides some much-needed services for caregivers, including support groups, information and education, and adult day care services.
“We provide a respite for caregivers, and a social outlet and services for aging adults, like nutritious meals, activities, and health care,” Wisdom Center director Alice Reyes said.
A relatively new program, adult day care runs Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Buses pick up participants at their homes and drive them to the Wisdom Center, where they can spend the day socializing, participating in group activities, and going on field trips.
Reyes said that the opportunity to interact with members of one’s own generation is incredibly beneficial for seniors.
“As helpful as an adult child might be, the conversation isn’t really the same because it’s not with peers,” she said.
Getting seniors involved in group activities is also good for a senior’s health and well-being, she explained. At the Wisdom Center, participants can choose from several activities, including such games as Bingo and puzzles, art projects, movies, and chatting with staff members and friends.
While such activities might seem like simple pastimes, Reyes said that puzzles and coloring can help improve dexterity and eyesight. Playing Bingo and conversing with friends helps to maintain seniors’ speech and cognitive abilities.
Plus, it’s fun.
“At home, all she can talk about is playing Bingo,” Abigail said of her mom. “And at night, she tells her caregivers, ‘Make sure to get my clothes out because I have to go to school tomorrow.”
Anita, however, wasn’t always so excited about going to the Wisdom Center.
The first time Abigail tried to get her mom into the program, Anita refused to go because she didn’t want to be “with a bunch of old people.”
Undeterred by the refusal, Abigail continued researching the Wisdom Center program and waited for a more opportune time to broach the subject. Eventually, her patience paid off.
Still, there have been some rough spots this second time around.
“The first day was like putting your child in kindergarten. She was crying. It was hard,” Abigail said. “She thought it was a hospital. She thought she was going to live here.”
Center director Reyes said that Anita’s reaction is pretty common when people first enter the program.
“Often, the fear of the participant is that we’re a skilled nursing home or a boarding home,” she said.
After a while, though, it’s typically the family members who have more trouble getting used to the new arrangement.
“There’s about a three-week transition period for participants and their families,” Reyes said. “Usually it’s more difficult for the family members because they need time to say, ‘It’s okay to ask for help,’ and decide that their loved one will be okay among their peers.”
Abigail and Anita are currently in the midst of their three-week transition, and Abigail said that she’s both relieved and alarmed by the change.
“After I started dropping her off here, I go home and think, ‘Oh, my gosh. I have the whole day. What am I going to do?’” she said.
The transition seems to be going well for Anita, too.
“Before coming here, she would always look dazed because she would sleep so much, but now the sparkle is back in her eye,” Abigail said.
And Abigail and Anita aren’t the only ones who benefit from the program.
The center is currently serving 80 families, and is in the process of enrolling 10 more. The center operates at a capacity of about 100 families—a message that Reyes is eager to convey to the community.
“We don’t want to be the best-kept secret on the Central Coast,” Reyes said. “We want people to know that we’re here to help them.”
And according to Joyce Ellen Lippman, executive director of the Central Coast Commission for Senior Citizens/Area Agency on Aging, there are plenty of people in the area who need some help.
“I’d say with about 75 to 80 percent of the people I see, the care is from the family. That hasn’t changed for about 50 years,” Lippman said.
“If anything, people are keeping their elderly family members at home more and more often,” she explained. “Family members make tremendous sacrifices to ensure the well being of their loved ones.”
In Santa Barbara County, there are quite a few services available to seniors and their family members.
The Area Agency on Aging compiles a yearly, countywide senior information directory available in hard copy and on its Web site, www.centralcoastseniors.org. The directory lists local providers of dozens of services meant to meet specific needs, including affordable housing, nutrition, education, finance, and health care.
“Things like affordable housing, in-home care, transportation—there are very real issues that older people and their families are facing every day,” Lippman said. “There are tremendous unmet needs for seniors everywhere.”
In order to meet the needs of local seniors, especially those in the low-income bracket, the Santa Barbara County Public Health and Social Services departments provide several key programs, including the In-Home Support Services Program, the Geriatric Assessment Program, and the Multipurpose Senior Services Program.
Through the Geriatric Assessment Program, public health nurses assess clients who are having difficulty maintaining their independence. They develop an individual care plan. Then the family, caregivers, and professionals hold a consultation, which enables the older person to safely live in the least-restrictive setting.
The Multipurpose Senior Services Program identifies the health and social needs of older, frail people who are at risk of being placed in a nursing home. The goal of the program is to provide short-term, high-quality case management in order to avoid “costly, premature, or inappropriate nursing home placement,” according to the Public Health Department Web site.
“This is an important program because no one wants to see an elderly person go into an institution before they’re ready,” said Susan Klein-Rothschild, assistant deputy director of the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department.
The Wisdom Center’s Reyes agreed, stating, “Isn’t that why people look forward to their golden years? Getting to stay in a home that they’ve worked their whole life for and not having to sell everything to go into a skilled nursing facility?”
However, the future of programs like those run through the county and the Wisdom Center and Area Agency on Aging might be in jeopardy.
Since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature have yet to pass a budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year—as of this writing, anyway—state-funded and nonprofit programs are facing at least 10 percent funding cuts across the board. And without those much-needed funds, many organizations are having to cut key programs. Or worse.
“We’re looking at about at least $10,000 less per month,” Reyes said. “Right now, we have enough money to last us until the end of the month.”
Then the center might have to close, the possibility of which frightens Reyes and others.
“If we were ever to close our doors, adult day care would leave the Central Coast,” Reyes said, citing the three-year moratorium on state licensing for geriatric services and funding as the major culprit.
On the county level, other programs are going through a similar transition.
“The county recently notified the state that we will be canceling support of the [Multipurpose Senior Services Program],” Klein-Rothschild said.
That program is expected to be picked up by a nonprofit agency and will start up again in November. The county is currently in the process of reviewing and accepting bids. But until everything is settled—the budget, county programs, and more—many families are just grateful for the extra help.
“I’ve always admired people who work [in geriatric programs] because it’s a lot of work to take care of someone and to have so many people in the same situation as my mom,” Abigail said. “I’ve seen other people go through this and they just give up.”
But giving up is something that Abigail—and Anita—would never dream of, especially now that they have the Wisdom Center on their side.
INFOBOX: Need help?
For more information about geriatric services, contact the following organizations:
• The Santa Maria Wisdom Center: 349-9810 or www.lifestepsfoundation.org.
• The Central Coast Commission for Seniors/Area Agency on Aging: 925-9554 or www.centralcoastseniors.org.
• Santa Barbara County Public Health Department: 346-8385 or www.sbcphd.org.
Contact Staff Writer Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 21-28, 2008.