HUNTINGTON — Providing caregivers with a needed break while giving older people a chance to socialize with their peers and alleviate the isolation and loneliness that many experience is the goal of West Virginia’s first medical adult day care center.

On Friday, Hospice of Huntington, through its non-hospice service line, Tri-State LifeCare, cut the ribbon on its new 5,000-square-foot Tri-State LifeCare AdultDay facility on Stonecrest Drive, just off the 5th Street Road exit of Interstate 64.

“We are very excited to bring this much-needed service to families in our region,” said Melanie Hall, president and CEO of Hospice of Huntington and Tri-State LifeCare.

Adult day centers offer a wide array of services to address the range of conditions and needs presented by participants and their caregivers, Hall said. She said the AdultDay team consists of a certified activities coordinator, nurses and direct care aides.

“Together, this team meets the social, medical and personal care needs of participants during each visit,” she said.

Basic AdultDay services will include social activities, skilled nursing care, assistance with personal care needs and dining. Medical services in coordination with the participant’s primary medical provider; physical, speech and occupational therapy; dietary counseling; memory care; massage therapy; hair care; laundry services and manicures/pedicures are among the other amenities that participants will have access to during their visits, according to Hall.

“The AdultDay program provides a benefit to both the participant and the family caregivers,” Hall explained. “The participant can engage with peers and partake in group and individual activities while still receiving necessary medical care and supervision during their visits. At the same time, family caregivers can attend to their own needs feeling confident their loved one is safe and satisfied.”

Hall said after Tri-State LifeCare opened a caregiving program and a home health and medicine program, she learned West Virginia was one of just a few states that did not have a medical adult day care center.

“So this place is the first medical adult day care center in the state of West Virginia,” she said. “A medical home day care center is all the things you would get at a social day care — fun activities, food, those types of things — but on top of that is additional medical services. This gives them an opportunity to be in a safe environment and learn a little bit about interacting with people and doing a lot of stuff and having food and games and just get the medical care taken care of in support or in conjunction and connection with their other medical providers, as well.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., participated in the ceremony.

“Our seniors have done so much for our communities and our state, and it’s very important that we invest in accommodations that deliver the services and opportunities they deserve,” Capito said. “Tri-State LifeCare’s AdultDay program will provide the community interaction and health care services that our seniors rely on, and I was honored to help them cut the ribbon on this new facility and celebrate this exciting occasion.”

Capito said she has authored and introduced the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act (PCHETA), a bipartisan bill to grow, improve and sustain the palliative and hospice care workforce to keep pace with patients’ needs and to help improve the well-being of Americans with life-threatening illnesses and their families.

“I’ve realized in the course of my work and also my own personal life, and my parents, I read that the caregivers sort of get exhausted and are unable to meet the demands,” Capito said. “It’s a very demanding position to be in to care for an aging parent. And so this bill that I’m working on will help develop the workforce for the palliative care and hospice care.”

Capito said there are not enough gerontologists.

“We don’t have enough people that understand what’s going on as we’re aging and to be able to meet the the needs there,” she said. “I think here in Huntington, you have an advantage because you have Marshall and you know you’ve got students, but we really need to encourage people to get into the geriatric field.”

Hall said the program is not hospice.

“It’s under the organization of hospitals, but it’s not hospice,” Hall said. “Someone in the day care would be way upstream from hospice. We can help them with the activities of daily living and things like that.”

Hall said the facility is built to accommodate 24 people at any given time.

Hall said for many years it was not feasible in West Virginia for someone to open an adult day care center because the reimbursement stream was not there to help offset costs.

“We appreciate everyone for making it possible for the program to be part of the state Medicaid plan for the HSA waiver services,” she said. “Unfortunately, Medicare doesn’t pay for something like this.”

State Sen. Robert Plymale, D-Wayne, said the state had a Medicaid waiver before, but it stopped offering it because there wasn’t a facility like this in the state.

“We asked, ‘Hey, if we build one and bring one on, would you put the Medicaid waiver back on?’” Plymale said. “The state said yes and so we got started and now that process is done.”

Hall said she expects the facility to open within the next few weeks after it finishes the licensing process.

“We have folks on a waiting list now and we are taking them through the enrollment process,” she said.

The facility will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. To learn more about Tri-State LifeCare and its new AdultDay program, visit https://tristatelifecare.org/adult -medical-day-care/ or call 304-399-0225.