ANAHEIM : Center for Seniors May Close Doors

Crippled by mounting debts and a dwindling cash flow, a day-care center for the elderly in Anaheim soon may be forced to close just 18 months after it opened.

The nonprofit Anaheim VIP Health Care Center is one of the few centers in the North County that offer both medical assistance and social activities for seniors.

Most of 24 clients of the center, situated in the northwestern corner of the city, live with working relatives and need some place to spend their days. A few live in board-and-care homes and visit the center a few days a week.

“I don’t know where they would go if we close,” said Shirley Cohen, executive director of the Anaheim-based Feedback Foundation, the nonprofit organization which operates the center. “It’s more than just a place to park (seniors) for the day.”

Ethel Ward, 94, has been coming to the center every weekday since it opened. She said she loves the activities and the food, and she plays the piano for the others.

“It’s a place where you meet people and you have friends,” Ward said. “There’s a happy way about everybody here.”

Ward’s daughter, Carolyn Weigand, a visual arts instructor at Golden West College, said she doesn’t know where she would take her mother if the center closes.

“I’m a real nit-picker, and I wouldn’t take her anywhere that wasn’t perfect,” Weigand said. “This place is perfect--it’s happy, clean and it smells wonderful.”

Along with transportation to and from seniors’ homes, meals and typical social activities that most centers offer, the VIP Center also maintains a medical care facility which offers physical and occupational therapy. A social worker also is available to help clients research the various programs and benefits available.

But late Medi-Cal reimbursements, clients with lower incomes and a lack of donations have left officials of the 18-month-old center with little hope that they can stay open beyond the next few months.

“We have focused where the needs are, but that’s not where the bucks are,” said Shirleen Jones, the center’s program director.

Most of the clients are Medi-Cal recipients, and that system is typically sluggish with reimbursements, Jones said. In addition, the center offers a sliding fee schedule, and most of those paying directly for the center are of low income and pay less than the operating costs.

Jones said it costs about $50 a day per client to operate the center, but many clients without Medi-Cal pay as little as $10 a day.

She said the center was established in Anaheim because of the lack of senior day care centers with medical facilities in the North County. It now serves a variety of seniors, from those who have suffered strokes or Alzheimer’s disease to those who simply want some daytime company and activity.

The foundation also operates a center in Santa Ana, which is facing less serious financial difficulties, and runs the Meals on Wheels program, distributing about 3,000 meals daily.

One other senior day-care center exists in Anaheim, but it does not offer comparable medical care. The city has plans to establish an additional senior care facility.