This Skagit program to offer a place for those with dementia to socialize in Bellingham
A Skagit County nonprofit that provides social activities and other services for people with dementia is expected to open a location in Bellingham this May — nearly nine months after a similar service in Lynden shut down.
Skagit Adult Day Program will open in the Rutledge Building at The Firs Camps & Retreats, 4605 Cable St., according to Pauline Smith, executive director for the program.
That space is 4,500 square feet.
The opening is planned for May 1, Smith told The Bellingham Herald in a phone interview on Wednesday.
“It’s very exciting. We’re looking forward to being part of that community,” she said of Whatcom County.
Skagit Adult Day Program’s third location
Adult day programs typically provide supervision as well as recreation, meals and social activities. They may or may not have medical services.
Skagit Adult Day Program, for example, is hiring a part-time nurse for its Bellingham location.
It also will provide support services for people caring for family members with dementia.
Adult day health programs offer the same sorts of services, but with more extensive medical care — making them costlier.
The Bellingham location will be the third for Skagit Adult Day Program, which has been in Burlington for 27 years and in Anacortes for 10 years.
In Bellingham, the program is expected to serve up to 50 clients that also could include people with some form of cognitive impairment.
Clients pay for the services. For information about using the service, contact Smith at Pauline@skagitadultdayprogram.org or 360-399-7681.
In Skagit County, the agency serves about 90 clients.
The program is raising up to $100,000 to open the Bellingham location. It also has applied for grants, Smith said, but those take time.
Smith said that the nonprofit had planned to expand north in a few years to meet increasing demand for services as baby boomers age, but drastically moved up its timeline because Christian Health Care Center closed its Lynden program — known as the Northwest Adult Day Health & Wellness Center — Aug. 10, after three years of operation.
Christian Health took over the program after PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center told clients it would stop providing the services at the end of 2014, after doing so for about 37 years in Bellingham.
Christian Health cited rising costs, flat reimbursement rates from Medicaid and increased governmental regulations as the reasons for closing.
The Bellingham program’s services will include medication management, hot meals, music, exercise and chances for people to reminisce and goof off, Smith said.
Family members, doctors’ offices and churches have told the Skagit program its services were needed in Bellingham, Smith said.
Other organizations and agencies that work with the elderly agreed.
“There’s very little available, and there’s a rapidly increasing senior population,” said Dan Murphy, executive director of the Northwest Regional Council, in a phone interview earlier this month.
Jan Higman, executive director for Dementia Support Northwest, said the adult day program could offer people living with dementia socialization and physical activity on more days than her organization could.
And it could take people that Dementia Support Northwest, formerly the Alzheimer Society of Washington, isn’t equipped to handle, Higman said in a phone interview earlier this month.
Socializing is one of the most important things for people living with dementia, she said.
“It helps slow the progression of the disease,” Higman said. “It gives them a sense of purpose.”
Such programs also are important because they provide a break for family members who care for loved ones with dementia — a demanding and stressful role filled with grief for the loved one who’s “falling away as they progress with the disease,” Higman said.
While they’re at the program, caregivers can go to the doctor, get a massage and do other things to care for themselves, Higman said.
“They have to be healthy so they can be there for the long term,” Higman said.
How to help
Skagit Adult Day Program is raising up to $100,000 to open its third location, in Bellingham. The nonprofit serves people with dementia or some form of cognitive impairment.
The money will be used for needs that include furniture, computers, office equipment, a washer and dryer, kitchen products and a stove, and remodeling the space to include a bathroom with a shower for emergencies.
Donations can be made through its Facebook page and its website at skagitadultdayprogram.org.
Details: Executive Director Pauline Smith at Pauline@skagitadultdayprogram.org and 360-399-7681.
This story was originally published January 25, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
