Alzheimer's & Dementia Care
Most adult day care centers in Florida are licensed to provide general senior care. SarahCare of Coral Springs holds a second, harder license from the state: the Specialized Alzheimer's Services License. We are one of the few adult day care centers in Broward County that does.
It isn't a marketing badge. It's a set of legal requirements the Agency for Health Care Administration holds us to, and it changes what your loved one's day actually looks like.
What the License Means for Your Family
More hands, fewer people to a caregiver
State law requires one staff member for every five participants with dementia, compared to one for every six in a standard center. In practice, that means someone notices when your mother is agitated, not twenty minutes later.
A locked, alarmed building
Every exit door a participant can reach is secured or alarmed, and we count heads throughout the day against the attendance sheet. If someone with dementia is drawn toward a door, we know before they reach the parking lot.
Therapeutic activity, not television
We're required to run structured, dementia-appropriate activities for at least 70% of the hours we're open. Music therapy, memory games, gardening, pet visits, exercise. Not a room with a TV on.
Hands-on personal care, handled with dignity
Including toileting and full incontinence care, provided by trained nursing assistants on a scheduled routine.
A written plan for your loved one, and for you
Every participant gets an individualized care plan addressing their specific dementia needs and their caregiver's needs. We reassess weight, vital signs, and level of assistance every month.
Help finding what comes next
We're required to help you connect with the services around us: medical, legal, financial, driving assessments, wandering prevention, and caregiver support groups. Most families don't know these exist. We do.
To hold a Specialized Alzheimer's Services License in Florida, a center must:
- Provide ADRD participants with a program for dementia-specific, therapeutic activities, including, but not limited to, physical, cognitive, and social activities appropriate for the ADRD participant's age, culture, and level of function.
- Maintain at all times a minimum staff-to-participant ratio of 1 staff member who provides direct services for every 5 ADRD participants. (Regular Adult Day Care is 1 for 6)
- Provide ADRD participants with a program for therapeutic activity at least 70 percent of the time that the center is open.
- Provide ADRD participants with hands-on assistance with activities of daily living, inclusive of the provision of urinary and bowel incontinence care.
- Create an individualized plan of care for each ADRD participant which addresses the identified, dementia-specific needs of the ADRD participant and the caregiver.
- Conduct a monthly health assessment of each ADRD participant which includes, but is not limited to, the ADRD participant's weight, vital signs, and level of assistance needed with activities of daily living.
- Assist in the referral or coordination of other dementia-specific services and resources needed by the ADRD participant or the caregiver, such as medical services, counseling, medical planning, legal planning, financial planning, safety and security planning, disaster planning, driving assessment, transportation coordination, or wandering prevention.
- Offer, facilitate, or provide referrals to a support group for persons who are caregivers to ADRD participants.
- Routinely conduct and document a count of all ADRD participants present in the center throughout each day. This count must be compared to each ADRD participant's attendance record in order to ensure that an ADRD participant is not missing from the center.
- Be a secured unit or have working alarm or security devices installed on every door that is accessible to the ADRD participant and provides egress from the center or areas of the center designated for the provision of adult day care - specialized Alzheimer's services.
ADRD stands for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias.
To our knowledge, SarahCare of Coral Springs is the only adult day care center in northern Broward County that holds this license.
See It for Yourself
Reading about a memory care program tells you very little. Spending a day in one tells you everything. We offer a free one-day trial so your loved one can experience the center, meet our staff, and spend a full day in the program before you commit to anything.