 We are back in the studio here at Davis Media Access. Welcome and thanks for tuning in. Today we're talking about plans to develop a Davis Adult Day Center here in Davis and expand the services for elders and for caregivers a bit here in Yolo County. My guests today are Cindy Royville Unger and Don Myers-Perkey and we're going to hear from them about how this process is going. So first let's start with what you do now and the context of your work. I'll start with you Don and how that works into this. Yeah, I work at Program Director at Yolo Adult Day Health Center and I've been there 20 years and have been watching that program and helping it grow for the last 20 years. Great. And Cindy? Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks for being here. I work currently. I am the Alzheimer's and Dementia Trainer for Comfort Keepers and In-Home Care Company. I've been serving Davis and Yolo County seniors for 30 years in the primarily Alzheimer's field. Great. That's amazing work. Thank you for doing that. So right now there is a day program but it's in Woodland and so if someone in Davis needs to get there they have to navigate to Woodland somehow. So plans to bring this to Davis. Yeah. Let's talk about that. What would be involved in a day program? Well, a day program is anything that you want it to be and one of the things that I think that we as a team, we have a team of people that are working on this, are very proud of is being able to integrate the Davis community and being able to serve people individually. So what is a day program going to look like? It depends on what our participants look like. If we have an artist we're going to be doing art. If we have a musician we're going to incorporate music, gardeners, gardening. We hope to incorporate children. A lot of volunteers and Davis is a wonderful place for that. We already have a list of people and growing who want to volunteer for this program. Whatever you can do or I can do or Dawn can do, someone with a memory impairment or a frail elderly person can do as well. It just may need to be modified a bit and supervised a little bit. So let's back up a little bit. Who's eligible? You just touch on a little bit. But when we think of day care we obviously think of children. But this is day care for elders and elders with memory impairment issues. So it's respite for caregivers. It is respite for caregivers as well. But it is also programming for people primarily with a memory impairment. That is the majority of the people who will seek our services. But also for people who are just a little frail and can't be left safely at home or don't want to be at home. They want to be in a group of people with like interests and have fun and do things. It's very much a social model of programming and it's like a club. It's day care is, you do think of children. I like to call it a club for groups. I like that. I took care of my mother when she had Alzheimer's and I know that the isolation, not only for her but for the caregiver is real. So this is a wonderful step in the right direction. What are we seeing here in Yolo County? What's driving the need? Well, the statistics in Yolo County are actually higher than in the state of California. So but in general we all know that one in three seniors will get dementia. And it's also the sixth leading cause of death for all people. So it's considered an epidemic and there is an enormous amount of concern about the demographic of the baby boomers moving into their senior years. So at the center we've already started seeing it. In the last two years our waiting list has gotten to the point where we are now serving people that have been on that waiting list for 18 months. So and that just continues to grow. So day programming is really a community based program that works with the family. And so it's really a desirable direction to go as caregivers become more stressed. And we can't emphasize enough the value for caregivers. It's not at all uncommon for the caregiver to become the more frail of the couple due to the demands that's placed on that person to be fully responsible for somebody they love so much. And so that stress leads to all kinds of cardiac issues, depression. And we all know the physical and psychological effects of that. Yeah, I watched that happen with my parents as a matter of fact. The struggle is real and finding resources is really hard. So that's why I was so interested in helping you get the word out of this. So what would a program in Davis look like? How would it be funded? How does all that happen? Well, you know, we put together the task force almost a year ago just knowing that it was going to be a big lift, building something from nothing. And so right now our phase is really in this phase bringing in the community where we want to get as much input from folks that will be using the center. But what we're going, but a program that we'll be designing will be licensed by California Department of Social Services. It's called community care licensing. So we'll find the right fit with the right organization. And then we will help them develop their licensing package. And once that's together, of course, the space is our biggest, the other, who's going to run it and the space that we'll need. So we're looking for about 4,000 square feet. It has to be a space that we can renovate to really meet the needs. And to build it to describe, to fit the description that Cindy gave. It's a safe environment, a comfortable place that offers all kinds of things that will really engage people and tap into all the different interests that people will come to us. Also, another big piece of our program will be the Caregiver Resource Center. We've also already received a very nice donation to create the Peggy Phelps Caregiver Resource Center. And most people in this community in this county think very highly of Peggy Phelps who we lost in early December. But her legacy, her impact on our community is going to move forward. And so through a nice donation, we'll have that piece. And that'll be very, very valuable to caregivers as a place of support, as a place for education and resources, and even if they aren't tapping into the day program itself. Because some people really can't do well in a social setting. Right. I'm really glad to hear about the Resource Center being named after Peggy. If there was anything about elders and elder care in this county that she didn't know about, it wasn't worth knowing. She's absolutely right. Yeah. So you mentioned ways that people can plug in. I know that I'm signed up for a focus group coming up. And there are a couple of those. Tell us about those a little bit. I think the input from the caregivers, that is hugely important to our committee. They are the experts. As much as Don and I have worked in this field for 20, 30 years, they are the ones doing the work. They are the ones at home 24 hours a day. They know what they need. They know what kind of program would best meet the needs of their loved one, and for their own needs for the Resource Center. So getting that input early and often, and all along the process, is going to help us design something that's very, very useful for the Davis Committee. I'm going to talk a little bit about the space. And I'm very, very excited about the space. And 4,000 square feet is the optimum space for the amount of people that would like to have. Being able to organize spaces to serve the individual client needs. So you have spaces that have a lot of activity. And then you have spaces that are quiet areas. You have green spaces. You have spaces that have color in children and are a little busy, but not noisy. So all of these opportunities for people to engage, they're using many of their senses because they're losing other things. And so they rely very heavily on their just ability in to manage the world on a sensory level. So that's a very important piece of all of this. And in this kind of program, an elder who comes and participates, they would come for, say, how long on a given day? It depends. And it depends on the need of the person. We're trying to accommodate as many caregivers and participants as we can. There are those people that work full time. We want to be able to say, OK, our program's open from 7 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock in the evening to accommodate the working caregivers. There are going to be people that cannot be in a program that long. That's just too long of a time for them. So we're going to have afternoon and morning options available. So that it really can be tailored toward the client and their caregiver. It's going to be quite a place. I can't wait to see it. I can't wait to see it. And so we really, this is going to be built by the people of Davis. And we have a survey. If you can go to the YOLO Healthy Aging website, there's a survey there that we're really hoping that caregivers, past caregivers, anyone, even if their loved ones out of the area, to fill out the survey and give us an idea of what they would look for in a day program if they were to tap into it. And then, of course, the two focus groups on May 25th and June 6th. Those dates are also on the web page. And you can get on our Facebook. And that way, you'll be able to say, stay tuned in and be current with our activities. So that web page may be on the screen, but just in case it's not, let's give that URL. It's YOLOHealthyAging.org. OK, I think it is on screen. I'm getting the high sign from over there. All right, well, we're actually almost out of time. So I want to thank you for coming in and sharing your expertise. And I want to say to people who are caregiving right now, you may not have the time to participate. But if, like me, you're a couple of years out of caregiving, I think we have a lot of feedback to offer. And so I want to encourage people to go to the link and sign up. And let's help make this a reality here in Davis. Let's do it. Thanks so much for the work you do. Thank you. Thank you for having us. And thank you for tuning in here in the studio at Davis Media Access. Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We're everywhere these days. Thanks.