EL ARCA’s Community-Based Adult Services (CBAS) is a day program providing a variety of health, therapeutic and social services designed to serve the specialized needs of the developmentally disabled and the frail elderly. This medical component of our program offerings is vital to the success of those requiring more physical assistance.
The primary objective of the program is to:
- Restore and/or maintain optimal capacity for self-care
- Delay or prevent unneeded institutionalization.
The program stresses partnerships with the student, family, physician and the community towards maintaining personal independence.
Highly skilled support professionals assist with:
- Medical assessments
- The first stage of the nursing process, in which a thorough check of the patient’s needs and potential is made.
- Nursing care
- The daily goal for our nurses is to monitor progress and make changes as needed.
- Physical and occupational therapies
- Physical therapy is where the real work comes in terms of promoting mobility and functional ability. From there occupational therapists address physical as well as cognitive needs while working to adapt one’s environment, including educating the family, in order to improve daily performance.
- Speech therapy
- Speech -language pathologists treat communication and swallowing disorders, which may include the use of prosthetic devices.
- Cognitive therapy
- Occupational therapists use cognitive therapy to help clients care for themselves by building routines, working on money managements and improving social and coping skills.
- Behavior planning
- This helps clients choose behaviors that are productive and socially acceptable by using functional assessments that look at stimulus, organism, response and consequences.
- Social/psychological services
- Social workers provide counseling and guidance to facilitate maximum function and coping capacity.
- Recreational and social services
- Therapeutic activities like art, music and games enhance clients’ social, physical and cognitive functioning.
- Cognitive re-training
- For those with Alzheimer’s or similar conditions, this method allows for optimal independence while emphasizing dignity and respect
- Free transportation to and from the center
- Meals and nutrition counseling.
Each participant is evaluated to create an individualized plan of care based on his or her needs. The multi-disciplinary team then makes the recommendation to provide appropriate services from the above. EL ARCA hopes to one day extend the services of CBAS to the general senior population, even if they’re not developmentally disabled.