Adult Day Services expands for the future

PALMER — Standing in the shadow of a coming “silver tsunami,” Mat-Su Senior Services says it’s expanding to meet a growing need.

“By the year 2035, it will be 32,000, close to 33,000 seniors in this community,” said Rachel Greenberg, deputy director of Mat-Su Senior Services.

That represents a tripling of the senior population and a tripling of the need for things like Adult Day Services. Which, she said, is why that program in particular is undergoing an expansion, adding a few thousand square feet and some bathrooms.

Greenberg said that although day services in Palmer hadn’t outgrown its location, it was getting close. By code, 40 people are allowed in that building. Typical days saw 30 to 35 people showing up for services. With the added space and new bathrooms, the new building could handle 60 clients.

So, the expanded space is a nod toward the future, said Peg Bowers, site manager of Adult Day Services.

“We are trying to be proactive,” she said. “The senior population is the fastest growing population in the Mat-Su Valley and the state of Alaska.”

Meanwhile in Houston, Adult Day Services has expanded into a new facility in the former Spenard Builder Supply facility.

“The area up there was underserved and we were approached by several different organizations to see if we were interested in starting an adult day services up there, so we opened in mid-July,” Bowers said.

As of Monday, Greenberg said, the Houston branch had signed up six clients, which is a big deal for this kind of service in such a short period of time.

As for what exactly Adult Day Services does, Bowers said they do a little bit of everything. There are computers and card games, bingo and professional entertainment.

“It’s a specialized program for people that need a little bit of extra help with socialization,” Bowers said. “Our goal is to keep people active and involved in their community while living at home or the least restrictive environment possible.”

It just makes sense to help seniors live independently both for their quality of life and for the money saved in housing costs, Greenberg said.

While the Palmer building is being expanded, she said the program has moved into the former Palmer Senior Center building across the street from the new one, which opened in 2011. Once the expansion is complete, the program will move back. Then Mat-Su Senior Services will have to figure out what to do with the old senior center building.

That’s a decision that will be up to the organization, a state of affairs it wasn’t always certain would be the case. Mat-Su Senior Services had been involved in protracted negotiations over the facility with the city of Palmer, which held title to the building. But the city signed that title over this fall.

“What we’re going to do with the old senior center is still really up in the air,” Greenberg said. She said the organization would look at leasing the space to someone, perhaps another senior services organization. “There’s lots of things it could be and it could be a really good asset to this community.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.