Center Provides Adult Day and Health Care : A New Source of Cheer for Elderly

His body and speech crippled by strokes, Chu Fang Chu can no longer perform the graceful movements that he once practiced daily as a master of the ancient martial art of T’ai Chi. He cannot express his anger, cannot talk about his fear.

His wife, Shou I, said that caring for the frustrated man in their downtown Los Angeles apartment took every bit of energy she could muster and left her with no time of her own, not even time to see the doctor or buy a badly needed pair of eyeglasses.

But their lives began to change this summer when the Central Adult Day Health Care Center opened in Echo Park. It is the first of its kind in the downtown area to offer day care to people who might otherwise face their last years in nursing homes.

‘Great Relief, Happiness’

“It gives us great relief and happiness,” Shou I Chu said. “He has been in a very, very bad temper because he cannot talk, and now he is surrounded by people and he can listen.”

Still somewhat rare in the United States--there are only 57 in California--adult day-care centers are patterned after European daytime facilities that have long provided the frail with care, therapy, recreational activities and companionship.

“We are talking about isolated, ill people who go to their room, look at the four walls and watch TV all day,” said Ingrid Lau, program director of the center. “Since we opened, they just love to come down here whenever they can.”

Lau said the helping hand that such centers give to the elderly can keep them out of nursing homes, at a far lower cost to society for their care.

Financial Backing

Most of the financial backing for the center, located in a renovated church gymnasium at 843 Laguna Ave., was provided by French Hospital in Chinatown. The hospital is supplying a physical therapist, nutritionist and van driver until more permanent financing can be found for the center, which will eventually be able to take in 120 to 130 of the elderly and disabled.

Alice Tsou, an activist for the elderly and the administrator of the new center, said the idea of elderly day care is still so unusual in California that funding is hard to obtain.

Tsou supplied $7,000 from her personal savings to help renovate the church gym after a grant that the center had sought from the city of Los Angeles was turned down shortly before the facility opened. She said the state supplied $50,000 in partial start-up funds and a private foundation helped, but the center is still pressed for money.

Program Needed

“This program is needed in every neighborhood, but government has failed us,” Tsou said. “People should say to their legislators: ‘This is a part of life, give us something besides nursing homes.’ ”

Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, who attended the center’s official dedication Thursday, said that without major increases in funding for such centers, “there are literally hundreds of thousands of elderly people around this state who will be consigned to nursing homes when they don’t belong there.” He urged Gov. George Deukmejian to sign a bill on his desk to allocate $750,000 in start-up funds for other new centers. McCarthy said that while there are many well-run nursing homes, the day-care centers can provide more individual attention.

Several of the 14 people who have joined the center since July have recounted traumatic experiences at nursing homes.

Severe Depression

Shou I Chu said she put her husband, who is 75, in a nursing home as a last resort early this year, and he soon began suffering from large bedsores and severe depression.

“He begged me, ‘Save me; take me home,’ ” she said. “After he came home, I heard about the center, and I prayed every day for it to open.”

Those using the center have shown dramatic changes in mental outlook in a short period, and most have also improved physically, Lau said.

Esther Wang, 85, said that before the center opened, “I felt so lonely and helpless, because my children are away from me and so busy with their own families.”

She said she has made many friends at the center, “and I love it. I thank God.”

Luke Huang, 78, whose wife, Ruth, has been completely disabled by Parkinson’s disease for 10 years, said the center has lightened his burden.

Enjoys Herself

“On the days when my wife feels well enough to come, she has enjoyed herself so much,” he said. “But really, it has helped me too.”

His dream, he said, is that his wife will improve enough so that “I will be able to leave her alone to have a few hours of my own.”