Left to right: (seated) Clients Rose Tobin, Mary Spiers, Evelyn Landau and Alba Thornhill. (standing) Program Director Julie Barcelo

The Abigail Adams Adult Day Health Center Center is a specialty adult day health center, catering to the needs of people with complex medical challenges such as Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias, Parkinson's Disease, Major Depression, Stroke and heart disease and their associated complications, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Diabetes, and chronic respiratory and lung disease.

Our mission is to keep the elder living in his/her own home environment for as long as possible and to avoid nursing home placement at all cost. Our experience in caring for these medically complex individuals has been a positive one, as these people , with extra TLC and support, can continue to thrive for a long duration. The Abigail Adams Center is a humane and cost effective solution for families faced with the challenges of a loved one's chronic diseases. We at the Abigail Adams Center for Alzheimer's Care have a threefold mission:

To the "Clients" We want our clients to remain involved in a meaningful life, well into their eighties, nineties and even one-hundreds! To do this we strive to keep them mentally and physically stimulated, by offering them a variety of failure free activities, music, spirituality services, outside field trips, and games. We also give our clients the ability to interact with our staff, outside visitors, children, volunteers and supportive health care contractors. We strive to inspire moderate independence in our clients, to allow them to give and receive human emotion, and to participate in an active, vital role within the community... both within our Center and within the larger world.

Photo credit: Lucia Cullivan

To the clients' families

We will strive to be as supportive and helpful to family members as possible, by providing realistic hours of operation which include some evening respite, to have staff be available through family meetings, to give guidance on issues of activity planning, behavior management, and environment planning, to give psychological help through both social services and support groups, and to provide information and education on new developments in the field of gerontology -both medical and social. Perhaps most importantly, we pledge to keep the safety of our clients of primary importance and alleviate the families of unnecessary worry.

To our employees

We hope to create a challenging and interesting work environment which allows for creativity and personal fulfillment and to be a place where the employee feels valued, appreciated and secure in their ability to express opinions and contribute to the decision making, in order to achieve better overall service to the client. We want our employees to love their work, and to pass on that positive feeling directly to our clients.